Electron beam-induced current in the temperature range from 304 to 404 K was employed to measure the minority carrier diffusion length in metal–organic chemical vapor deposition-grown p-Ga₂O₃ thin films with two different concentrations of majority carriers. The diffusion length of electrons exhibited a decrease with increasing temperature. In addition, the cathodoluminescence emission spectrum identified optical signatures of the acceptor levels associated with the V_Ga⁻–V_O⁺⁺ complex. The activation energies for the diffusion length decrease and quenching of cathodoluminescence emission with increasing temperature were ascribed to the thermal de-trapping of electrons from V_Ga⁻–V_O⁺⁺ defect complexes.