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The ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) energy (∼5.4 eV) of α-phase Ga2O3 offers the potential to achieve higher power switching performance and efficiency than today's power electronic devices. However, a major challenge to the development of the α-Ga2O3 power electronics is overheating, which can degrade the device performance and cause reliability issues. In this study, thermal characterization of an α-Ga2O3 MOSFET was performed using micro-Raman thermometry to understand the device self-heating behavior. The α-Ga2O3 MOSFET exhibits a channel temperature rise that is more than two times higher than that of a GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). This is mainly because of the low thermal conductivity of α-Ga2O3 (11.9 ± 1.0 W/mK at room temperature), which was determined via laser-based pump-probe experiments. A hypothetical device structure was constructed via simulation that transfer-bonds the α-Ga2O3 epitaxial structure over a high thermal conductivity substrate. Modeling results suggest that the device thermal resistance can be reduced to a level comparable to or even better than those of today's GaN HEMTs using this strategy combined with thinning of the α-Ga2O3 buffer layer. The outcomes of this work suggest that device-level thermal management is essential to the successful deployment of UWBG α-Ga2O3 devices. 

There is increasing interest in the alpha polytype of Ga 2 O 3 because of its even larger bandgap than the more studied beta polytype, but in common with the latter, there is no viable p-type doping technology. One option is to use p-type oxides to realize heterojunctions and NiO is one of the candidate oxides. The band alignment of sputtered NiO on α-Ga 2 O 3 remains type II, staggered gap for annealing temperatures up to 600 °C, showing that this is a viable approach for hole injection in power electronic devices based on the alpha polytype of Ga 2 O 3 . The magnitude of both the conduction and valence band offsets increases with temperature up to 500 °C, but then is stable to 600 °C. For the as-deposited NiO/α-Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction, ΔE V  = −2.8 and ΔE C  = 1.6 eV, while after 600 °C annealing the corresponding values are ΔE V  = −4.4 and ΔE C  = 3.02 eV. These values are 1−2 eV larger than for the NiO/β-Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction. 

α-Ga2O3 has the corundum structure analogous to that of α-Al2O3. The bandgap energy of α-Ga2O3 is 5.3 eV and is greater than that of β-Ga2O3, making the α-phase attractive for devices that benefit from its wider bandgap. The O-H and O-D centers produced by the implantation of H+ and D+ into α-Ga2O3 have been studied by infrared spectroscopy and complementary theory. An O-H line at 3269 cm-1 is assigned to H complexed with a Ga vacancy (VGa), similar to the case of H trapped by an Al vacancy (VAl) in α-Al2O3. The isolated VGa and VAl defects in α-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3 are found by theory to have a “shifted” vacancy-interstitial-vacancy equlibrium configuration, similar to VGa in β-Ga2O3 which also has shifted structures. However, the addition of H causes the complex with H trapped at an unshifted vacancy to have the lowest energy in both α-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3. 

α-Ga 2 O 3 has the corundum structure analogous to that of α-Al 2 O 3 . The bandgap energy of α-Ga 2 O 3 is 5.3 eV and is greater than that of β-Ga 2 O 3 , making the α-phase attractive for devices that benefit from its wider bandgap. The O–H and O–D centers produced by the implantation of H + and D + into α-Ga 2 O 3 have been studied by infrared spectroscopy and complementary theory. An O–H line at 3269 cm −1 is assigned to H complexed with a Ga vacancy (V Ga ), similar to the case of H trapped by an Al vacancy (V Al ) in α-Al 2 O 3 . The isolated V Ga and V Al defects in α-Ga 2 O 3 and α-Al 2 O 3 are found by theory to have a “shifted” vacancy-interstitial-vacancy equilibrium configuration, similar to V Ga in β-Ga 2 O 3 , which also has shifted structures. However, the addition of H causes the complex with H trapped at an unshifted vacancy to have the lowest energy in both α-Ga 2 O 3 and α-Al 2 O 3 . 

β-Ga2O3 is emerging as an interesting wide band gap semiconductor for solar blind photo detectors (SBPD) and high power field effect transistors (FET) because of its outstanding material properties including an extremely wide bandgap (Eg ~4.9eV) and a high breakdown field (8 MV/cm). This review summarizes recent trends and progress in the growth/doping of β-Ga2O3 thin films and then offers an overview of the state-of-the-art in SBPD and FET devices. The present challenges for β-Ga2O3 devices to penetrate the market in real-world applications are also considered, along with paths for future work.