Thin-film transistors made of solution-processed metal oxide semiconductors hold great promise for application in the emerging sector of large-area electronics. However, further advancement of the technology is hindered by limitations associated with the extrinsic electron transport properties of the often defect-prone oxides. We overcome this limitation by replacing the single-layer semiconductor channel with a low-dimensional, solution-grown In₂O₃/ZnO heterojunction. We find that In₂O₃/ZnO transistors exhibit band-like electron transport, with mobility values significantly higher than single-layer In₂O₃ and ZnO devices by a factor of 2 to 100. This marked improvement is shown to originate from the presence of free electrons confined on the plane of the atomically sharp heterointerface induced by the large conduction band offset between In₂O₃ and ZnO. Our finding underscores engineering of solution-grown metal oxide heterointerfaces as an alternative strategy to thin-film transistor development and has the potential for widespread technological applications.

We report on thin-film transistors based on Ga₂O₃ films grown by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis in ambient atmosphere at 400–450 °C. The elemental, electronic, optical, morphological, structural, and electrical properties of the films and devices were investigated using a range of complementary characterisation techniques, whilst the effects of post deposition annealing at higher temperature (700 °C) were also investigated. Both as-grown and post-deposition annealed Ga₂O₃ films are found to be slightly oxygen deficient, exceptionally smooth and exhibit a wide energy bandgap of ∼4.9 eV. Transistors based on as-deposited Ga₂O₃ films show n-type conductivity with the maximum electron mobility of ∼2 cm²/V s.