Fundamental Properties and Power Electronic Device Progress of Gallium Oxide

Gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) is an emerging ultrawide band gap (UWBG) semiconducting material as a key building block for the applications of power electronics and deep ultraviolet optoelectronics beyond existing technologies. To date, rapid progress has been achieved in the development of state-of-the-art epitaxy of Ga₂O₃ material and high-performance power devices and solar-blind photodetectors, however, several remaining challenges require proper solutions for practical applications. In this chapter, the fundamental properties of the Ga₂O₃ material and basic characteristics of power devices have been briefly summarized in the first part; consequently, recent advances of Ga₂O₃-based power electronic devices, including Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs), metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), and modulation-doped field effect transistors (MODFETs) have been comprehensively reviewed. A special focus is to address the physical mechanism for the deep-depletion MOSFET based on Ga₂O₃ material. This chapter may provide better understanding on the fundamental properties of the Ga₂O₃ emerging material to fully exploit its promising applications in power electronics.