Beta-phase gallium oxide (β-Ga₂O₃) is a cutting-edge ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor, featuring a bandgap energy of around 4.8 eV and a highly critical electric field strength of about 8 MV/cm. These properties make it highly suitable for next-generation power electronics and deep ultraviolet optoelectronics. Key advantages of β-Ga₂O₃ include the availability of large-size single-crystal bulk native substrates produced from melt and the precise control of n-type doping during both bulk growth and thin-film epitaxy. A comprehensive understanding of the fundamental growth processes, control parameters, and underlying mechanisms is essential to enable scalable manufacturing of high-performance epitaxial structures. This review highlights recent advancements in the epitaxial growth of β-Ga₂O₃ through various techniques, including Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE), Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD), Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE), Mist Chemical Vapor Deposition (Mist CVD), Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), and Low-Pressure Chemical Vapor Deposition (LPCVD). This review concentrates on the progress of Ga₂O₃ growth in achieving high growth rates, low defect densities, excellent crystalline quality, and high carrier mobilities through different approaches. It aims to advance the development of device-grade epitaxial Ga₂O₃ thin films and serves as a crucial resource for researchers and engineers focused on UWBG semiconductors and the future of power electronics.

This letter reports the demonstration of Aluminum nitride (AIN) Schottky barrier diodes on bulk AlN substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor phase deposition with breakdown voltages exceeding 3 kV. The devices exhibited good rectifying characteristics with ON/OFF ratios of 10⁶–10⁸ and excellent thermal stability from 298 to 623 K. The device Schottky barrier height increased from 0.89 to 1.85 eV, and the ideality factor decreased from 4.29 to 1.95 with increasing temperature, ascribed to the inhomogeneous metal/AlN interface. This work demonstrates the potential of AlN as an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor for developing multi-kV AlN high-voltage and high-power devices.

(001) β-Ga₂O₃ homoepitaxy on commercially available large-size (001) β-Ga₂O₃ substrates remains a significant challenge for the wide bandgap semiconductor community. In this Letter, high-quality homoepitaxial (001) β-Ga₂O₃ films were grown via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with the assistance of an in situ indium surfactant, where the growth modes and mechanisms were also elucidated. During the growth of β-Ga₂O₃, an etching process occurred by the desorption of the suboxide Ga₂O, resulting in rough surface morphology with streaky grooves oriented along the [010] direction. It is postulated that the parallel grooves were associated with the surface desorption and anisotropic diffusion characteristics of β-Ga₂O₃. To suppress the desorption, indium surfactant was introduced into the growth environment. A 2D-like growth feature was prompted subsequently by the coadsorption of In and Ga atoms, accompanied by relatively smooth surface morphology. The crystal quality had no degradation despite the incorporation of indium in the epitaxial film. The O II peak of the β-Ga₂O₃ film shifted ∼0.5 eV toward higher binding energy due to an increasing number of oxygen vacancies originating from the indium incorporation. This work provides a systemic investigation on the growth of high-quality (001) β-Ga₂O₃ homoepitaxial films by MOCVD, which is critical for the development of β-Ga₂O₃ electronic devices for future power switching and RF applications.

During the past decade, Gallium Oxide (Ga₂O₃) has attracted intensive research interest as an ultra-wide-bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor due to its unique characteristics, such as a large bandgap of 4.5–4.9 eV, a high critical electric field of ~8 MV/cm, and a high Baliga’s figure of merit (BFOM). Unipolar β-Ga₂O₃ devices such as Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) and field-effect transistors (FETs) have been demonstrated. Recently, there has been growing attention toward developing β-Ga₂O₃-based heterostructures and heterojunctions, which is mainly driven by the lack of p-type doping and the exploration of multidimensional device architectures to enhance power electronics’ performance. This paper will review the most recent advances in β-Ga₂O₃ heterostructures and heterojunctions for power electronics, including NiO_x/β-Ga₂O₃, β-(Al_xGa_1−x)₂O₃/β-Ga₂O₃, and β-Ga₂O₃ heterojunctions/heterostructures with other wide- and ultra-wide-bandgap materials and the integration of two-dimensional (2D) materials with β-Ga₂O₃. Discussions of the deposition, fabrication, and operating principles of these heterostructures and heterojunctions and the associated device performance will be provided. This comprehensive review will serve as a critical reference for researchers engaged in materials science, wide- and ultra-wide-bandgap semiconductors, and power electronics and benefits the future study and development of β-Ga₂O₃-based heterostructures and heterojunctions and associated power electronics.

This letter reports the demonstration and electrical characterization of high-voltage AlN metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) on single-crystal AlN substrates. Compared with AlN MESFETs on foreign substrates, the AlN-on-AlN MESFETs showed high breakdown voltages of over 2 kV for drain-to-gate spacing of 15 μm and one of the highest average breakdown fields among reported AlN MESFETs. Additionally, the devices also exhibited decent drain saturation current and on/off ratio without complicated regrown or graded contact layers, which are several times higher than those of reported AlN-on-sapphire MESEFTs. This work is beneficial for the future development of ultrawide bandgap AlN power electronics.

This letter reports the demonstration of lateral AlN Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) on single-crystal AlN substrates by metalorganic CVD (MOCVD) with an ultra-low ideality factor (η) of 1.65, a high Schottky barrier height of 1.94 eV, a breakdown voltage (BV) of 640 V, and a record high normalized BV by the anode-to-cathode distance. The device current was dominated by thermionic emission, while most previously reported AlN SBDs suffered from defect-induced current with higher η (>4). This work represents a significant step towards high-performance ultra-wide bandgap AlN-based high-voltage and high-power devices.