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The thermal conductivities of (100) γ-Ga2O3 films deposited on (100) MgAl2O4 substrates with various thicknesses were measured using frequency-domain thermoreflectance. The measured thermal conductivities of γ-Ga2O3 films are lower than the thermal conductivities of (2¯ 01) β-Ga2O3 films of comparable thickness, which suggests that γ-phase inclusions in the doped or alloyed β-phase may affect its thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of γ-Ga2O3 increases from 2.3−0.5+0.9 to 3.5±0.7 W/m K for films with thicknesses of 75–404 nm, which demonstrates a prominent size effect on thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of γ-Ga2O3 also shows a slight increase as temperature increases from 293 to 400 K. This increase in thermal conductivity occurs when defect and boundary scattering suppress signatures of temperature-dependent Umklapp scattering. γ-Ga2O3 has a cation-defective spinel structure with at least two gallium vacancies in every unit cell, which are the likely source of defect scattering. 

Phase transitions in metastable α-, κ(ε)-, and γ-Ga2O3 films to thermodynamically stable β-Ga2O3 during annealing in air, N2, and vacuum have been systematically investigated via in situ high-temperature x-ray diffraction (HT-XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). These respective polymorphs exhibited thermal stability to ∼471–525 °C, ∼773–825 °C, and ∼490–575 °C before transforming into β-Ga2O3, across all tested ambient conditions. Particular crystallographic orientation relationships were observed before and after the phase transitions, i.e., (0001) α-Ga2O3 → (2¯01) β-Ga2O3, (001) κ(ε)-Ga2O3 → (310) and (2¯01) β-Ga2O3, and (100) γ-Ga2O3 → (100) β-Ga2O3. The phase transition of α-Ga2O3 to β-Ga2O3 resulted in catastrophic damage to the film and upheaval of the surface. The respective primary and possibly secondary causes of this damage are the +8.6% volume expansion and the dual displacive and reconstructive transformations that occur during this transition. The κ(ε)- and γ-Ga2O3 films converted to β-Ga2O3 via singular reconstructive transformations with small changes in volume and unchanged surface microstructures. 

Thin (40–150 nm), highly doped n+ (1019–1020 cm−3) Ga2O3 layers deposited using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) were incorporated into Ti/Au ohmic contacts on (001) and (010) β-Ga2O3 substrates with carrier concentrations between 2.5 and 5.1 × 1018 cm−3. Specific contact resistivity values were calculated for contact structures both without and with a PLD layer having different thicknesses up to 150 nm. With the exception of a 40 nm PLD layer on the (001) substrate, the specific contact resistivity values decreased with increasing PLD layer thickness: up to 8× on (001) Ga2O3 and up to 16× on (010) Ga2O3 compared with samples without a PLD layer. The lowest average specific contact resistivities were achieved with 150 nm PLD layers: 3.48 × 10−5 Ω cm2 on (001) Ga2O3 and 4.79 × 10−5 Ω cm2 on (010) Ga2O3. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy images revealed differences in the microstructure and morphology of the PLD layers on the different substrate orientations. This study describes a low-temperature process that could be used to reduce the contact resistance in Ga2O3 devices.