Dear Colleagues,

III-nitride (GaN, AlN, InN, BN) heterostructures and their alloys are at the forefront in the effort to fulfil the needs of next-generation power conversion technology and communication systems, enabling a compact, affordable and energy-efficient future for all humanity. In addition to its widespread use in state-of-the-art light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), this semiconductor family is leading the way by replacing conventional semiconductors in high-power and RF electronics, and has more recently shown immense promise for use in solar cells and thermoelectric generators, novel spintronic and nuclear detection devices, plasmonics, and quantum computing systems. Some main reasons for this include: (a) tunability across a wide bandgap range, (b) polarization fields enabling multiple applications within the same material, and (c) well-established growth techniques.

Moreover, the exceptional fundamental properties of electrons in III-nitrides have enabled the widespread use of these materials for reliable high-power and high-frequency electronics. This is an exciting time for GaN-based materials and devices in the research setting, as well as the push to strategize the propagation of this semiconductor into industry and commercial applications.

This Special Issue seeks to present cutting-edge works spanning novel physics, materials development and device applications utilizing GaN (III-nitrides), their heterostructures and alloys. This Special Issue will also cover works relating to circuit- and system-level design based on GaN. We will first answer the question, “why GaN?”, and then move onto “how GaN?” Since this is an important time for this materials system to strategically make inroads for commercial applications, this Special Issue also gives importance to works related to the plan for GaN to be integrated with other materials systems and existing facilities for scaled production.

Dr. Athith Krishna
Prof. Dr. Dunjun Chen
Guest Editors

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• semiconductors
• III-nitrides
• GaN
• wide-bandgap semiconductors
• power electronics
• LEDs
• laser diodes
• novel nitrides
• HEMTs
• epitaxy
• MOCVD
• MBE