A 7-eV bandgap semiconductor based on silicon-doped α-(Al(x)Ga(1-x))(2)O(3).

Silicon-doped α-(AlxGa1-x)2O3 films with a 7.0 eV bandgap outperform previous wide-bandgap semiconductors, enabling high-conductivity devices on inexpensive sapphire substrates.

• Why it matters: Wider-bandgap semiconductors are crucial for higher efficiency power electronics, but their conductivity modulation becomes difficult as the bandgap increases, limiting practical applications.
• What they did: Researchers grew silicon-doped α-(AlxGa1-x)2O3 films via suboxide molecular-beam epitaxy, achieving a bandgap exceeding 7.0 eV and room-temperature conductivities over 100 million times higher than prior records, and fabricated Schottky diodes and transistors.
• The result: This breakthrough enables scalable, cost-effective colossal-bandgap electronics on common substrates, paving the way for advanced power devices with improved performance and manufacturing ease.