Advances in Structural and Compositional Characterization for the Development of Wide Bandgap Semiconductors

Dear Colleagues,

Wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGS) are the key to a new generation of electronic and optoelectronic devices with functionalities going beyond those of silicon devices. The overwhelming success of III-nitride based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes used in solid state lighting applications and data storage is a prominent example. High power and high temperature electronic devices, today mainly built from SiC and GaN, find use in various fields from renewable energy generation, over electric vehicles, to transportation and space applications, just to name a few. Further fields of applications where WBGS are expected to play a prominent role include RF devices for space communications, sensors, quantum technologies, among others. In this scenario, emerging wide bandgap semiconductors such as ZnMg(Cd)O, Ga₂O₃ or diamond are about to reveal their full potential.

The performance of any device based on these novel materials will depend critically on the structural and compositional properties of the constituent semiconductor material. Advanced characterisation techniques are therefore needed to reveal the physical mechanisms leading to certain desired or unintended features such as certain microstructures, defects, strain, doping, etc. The objective of this Special Issue is therefore to highlight the importance of structural and compositional characterisation for the development of novel WBGS structures and devices and to give a series of representative examples of how advanced structural and compositional characterisation can help to control the desired properties and functions of materials and devices.

• All wide bandgap semiconductors (WBGS) including nitrides, carbides, oxides, diamond and other emerging materials with different shapes and scales from bulk crystals to nanostructures;
• Application of advanced structural and compositional characterisation to WBGS including X-Ray-based techniques, electron microscopy-based techniques, ion beam analysis techniques, nuclear probe techniques, imaging techniques, spectroscopies, surface sensitive techniques;
• Micro and nanomechanical properties of WBGS;
• In-situ characterisation;
• Defects, dislocations, deformation, twins, and stress induced phenomena in WBGS;
• Advances in materials modeling of WBGS;
• Optimisation of growth procedures based on structural/compositional properties;
• Doping;
• Structural modification of WBGS including processing by etching, surface treatments, patterning, annealing, irradiation, implantation;
• Fabrication and functionalisation;
• WBGS device optimisation based on structural and compositional characterisation for applications in optoelectronics, high-power electronics, photonics, sensors, energy and other emerging technologies.

Prof. Dr. Katharina Lorenz
Dr. Andrés Redondo-Cubero
Guest Editors

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