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Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials
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Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Synthesis, Interfaces and Nanostructures".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 4 July 2025 | Viewed by 11054

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Yizhang Wu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Applied Physical Sciences, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Interests: Wide-Bandgap semiconductors; DFT calculation; bioelectronic devices; immunotherapy
Dr. Yong Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Academy of Advanced Interdisciplinary Research, School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Xidian University, Xi'an 710126, China
Interests: 2D materials; spintronics materials; semiconductor devices; photocatalysis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are excited to announce a forthcoming Special Issue in Nanomaterials focused on “Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials”. This Special Issue aims to showcase and explore the latest breakthroughs in the synthesis, theoretical calculations, performance characterization, and applications of wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials.

Broadly speaking, a wide-bandgap semiconductor is a type of semiconductor material with an energy bandgap larger than 2.0 eV. The bandgap is the energy range where electrons are not present, and their absence in this region allows wide-bandgap semiconductors to exhibit distinct properties, such as a high breakdown voltage, high thermal stability, and unique optical properties.

Wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials represent a class of materials that have garnered substantial attention in recent years due to their unique electronic properties and versatile applications. These materials, characterized by their wide energy bandgap, hold great promise in fields ranging from electronics and photonics to energy conversion and biomedicine.

Wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials have gained significant attention due to their unique properties and multifaceted applications.

This Special Issue provides a platform for researchers to share their innovative work on a broad spectrum of topics, including, but not limited to:

  1. Innovative methods and techniques for synthesizing wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials, including inorganic non-metallic materials, organic multi-iron materials, and organic–inorganic hybrids;
  2. Advanced computational modeling and simulations to understand the electronic, optical, and structural properties;
  3. Performance characterization of experimental investigations of wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials, including their electrical, optical, thermal, and mechanical properties;
  4. Diverse applications of wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials, such as in biomedical, energy harvesting, optoelectronic devices, and more.

In particular, we welcome the applications of wide-bandgap semiconductors committed to biological applications in various aspects of therapy, diagnostics, and imaging.

We encourage researchers, clinicians, and professionals from diverse disciplines to contribute their insights and expertise to this Special Issue. By sharing your findings, you will contribute to the advancement of our understanding of wide-bandgap semiconductor nanomaterials.

Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] for any inquiries or further information about this Special Issue.

We look forward to receiving your contributions and witnessing the progress towards the Special Issue, “Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials” in Nanomaterials.

Dr. Yizhang Wu
Dr. Yong Wang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nanomaterials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Wide-Bandgap (WB) semiconductors
  • WB semiconductor synthesis
  • WB semiconductor theoretical modeling
  • WB semiconductor performance characterization
  • WB semiconductor optoelectronics
  • WB semiconductor power electronics
  • WB semiconductor photonics devices
  • WB semiconductor Biomedical applications
  • WB semiconductor energy conversion

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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9 pages, 2576 KiB  
Article
Growth of α-Ga2O3 from Gallium Acetylacetonate under HCl Support by Mist Chemical Vapor Deposition
by Tatsuya Yasuoka, Li Liu, Giang T. Dang and Toshiyuki Kawaharamura
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(14), 1221; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14141221 - 18 Jul 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 816
Abstract
α-Ga2O3 films were grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate by HCl-supported mist chemical vapor deposition with multiple solution chambers, and the effect of HCl support on α-Ga2O3 film quality was investigated. The growth rate monotonically increased [...] Read more.
α-Ga2O3 films were grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate by HCl-supported mist chemical vapor deposition with multiple solution chambers, and the effect of HCl support on α-Ga2O3 film quality was investigated. The growth rate monotonically increased with increasing Ga supply rate. However, as the Ga supply rate was higher than 0.1 mmol/min, the growth rate further increased with increasing HCl supply rate. The surface roughness was improved by HCl support when the Ga supply rate was smaller than 0.07 mmol/min. The crystallinity of the α-Ga2O3 films exhibited an improvement with an increase in the film thickness, regardless of the solution preparation conditions, Ga supply rate, and HCl supply rate. These results indicate that there is a low correlation between the improvement of surface roughness and crystallinity in the α-Ga2O3 films grown under the conditions described in this paper. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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18 pages, 6598 KiB  
Article
Investigations of In2O3 Added SiC Semiconductive Thin Films and Manufacture of a Heterojunction Diode
by Chia-Te Liao, Chia-Yang Kao, Zhi-Ting Su, Yu-Shan Lin, Yi-Wen Wang and Cheng-Fu Yang
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(10), 881; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14100881 - 19 May 2024
Viewed by 1175
Abstract
This study involved direct doping of In2O3 into silicon carbide (SiC) powder, resulting in 8.0 at% In-doped SiC powder. Subsequently, heating at 500 °C was performed to form a target, followed by the utilization of electron beam (e-beam) technology to [...] Read more.
This study involved direct doping of In2O3 into silicon carbide (SiC) powder, resulting in 8.0 at% In-doped SiC powder. Subsequently, heating at 500 °C was performed to form a target, followed by the utilization of electron beam (e-beam) technology to deposit the In-doped SiC thin films with the thickness of approximately 189.8 nm. The first breakthrough of this research was the successful deposition of using e-beam technology. The second breakthrough involved utilizing various tools to analyze the physical and electrical properties of In-doped SiC thin films. Hall effect measurement was used to measure the resistivity, mobility, and carrier concentration and confirm its n-type semiconductor nature. The uniform dispersion of In ions in SiC was as confirmed by electron microscopy energy-dispersive spectroscopy and secondary ion mass spectrometry analyses. The Tauc Plot method was employed to determine the Eg values of pure SiC and In-doped SiC thin films. Semiconductor parameter analyzer was used to measure the conductivity and the I-V characteristics of devices in In-doped SiC thin films. Furthermore, the third finding demonstrated that In2O3-doped SiC thin films exhibited remarkable current density. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Gaussian-resolved spectra further confirmed a significant relationship between conductivity and oxygen vacancy concentration. Lastly, depositing these In-doped SiC thin films onto p-type silicon substrates etched with buffered oxide etchant resulted in the formation of heterojunction p-n junction. This junction exhibited the rectifying characteristics of a diode, with sample current values in the vicinity of 102 mA, breakdown voltage at approximately −5.23 V, and open-circuit voltage around 1.56 V. This underscores the potential of In-doped SiC thin films for various semiconductor devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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10 pages, 4167 KiB  
Article
Effect of Post-Implantation Heat Treatment Conditions on Photoluminescent Properties of Ion-Synthesized Gallium Oxide Nanocrystals
by Dmitry S. Korolev, Kristina S. Matyunina, Alena A. Nikolskaya, Alexey I. Belov, Alexey N. Mikhaylov, Artem A. Sushkov, Dmitry A. Pavlov and David I. Tetelbaum
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(10), 870; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14100870 - 17 May 2024
Viewed by 931
Abstract
A novel and promising way for creating nanomaterials based on gallium oxide is the ion synthesis of Ga2O3 nanocrystals in a SiO2/Si dielectric matrix. The properties of nanocrystals are determined by the conditions of ion synthesis—the parameters of [...] Read more.
A novel and promising way for creating nanomaterials based on gallium oxide is the ion synthesis of Ga2O3 nanocrystals in a SiO2/Si dielectric matrix. The properties of nanocrystals are determined by the conditions of ion synthesis—the parameters of ion irradiation and post-implantation heat treatment. In this work, the light-emitting properties of Ga2O3 nanocrystals were studied depending on the temperature and annealing atmosphere. It was found that annealing at a temperature of 900 °C leads to the appearance of intense luminescence with a maximum at ~480 nm caused by the recombination of donor–acceptor pairs. An increase in luminescence intensity upon annealing in an oxidizing atmosphere is shown. Based on data from photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, a hypothesis about the possibility of the participation of a quantum-size effect during radiative recombination is proposed. A mechanism for the formation of Ga2O3 nanocrystals during ion synthesis is suggested, which makes it possible to describe the change in the luminescent properties of the synthesized samples with varying conditions of post-implantation heat treatment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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14 pages, 2847 KiB  
Article
Growth of Wide-Bandgap Monolayer Molybdenum Disulfide for a Highly Sensitive Micro-Displacement Sensor
by Shaopeng Wang, Jiahai Huang, Yizhang Wu and Huimin Hao
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(3), 275; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14030275 - 27 Jan 2024
Viewed by 1490
Abstract
Two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric semiconductor materials are garnering significant attention in applications such as intelligent sensing and energy harvesting due to their exceptional physical and chemical properties. Among these, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a 2D wide-bandgap semiconductor, exhibits piezoelectricity in odd-layered structures due [...] Read more.
Two-dimensional (2D) piezoelectric semiconductor materials are garnering significant attention in applications such as intelligent sensing and energy harvesting due to their exceptional physical and chemical properties. Among these, molybdenum disulfide (MoS2), a 2D wide-bandgap semiconductor, exhibits piezoelectricity in odd-layered structures due to the absence of an inversion symmetry center. In this study, we present a straightforward chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique to synthesize monolayer MoS2 on a Si/SiO2 substrate, achieving a lateral size of approximately 50 µm. Second-harmonic generation (SHG) characterization confirms the non-centrosymmetric crystal structure of the wide-bandgap MoS2, indicative of its piezoelectric properties. We successfully transferred the triangular MoS2 to a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flexible substrate using a wet-transfer method and developed a wide-bandgap MoS2-based micro-displacement sensor employing maskless lithography and hot evaporation techniques. Our testing revealed a piezoelectric response current of 5.12 nA in the sensor under a strain of 0.003% along the armchair direction of the monolayer MoS2. Furthermore, the sensor exhibited a near-linear relationship between the piezoelectric response current and the strain within a displacement range of 40–100 µm, with a calculated response sensitivity of 1.154 µA/%. This research introduces a novel micro-displacement sensor, offering potential for advanced surface texture sensing in various applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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13 pages, 4326 KiB  
Article
Controlled Crystallinity of a Sn-Doped α-Ga2O3 Epilayer Using Rapidly Annealed Double Buffer Layers
by Kyoung-Ho Kim, Yun-Ji Shin, Seong-Min Jeong, Heesoo Lee and Si-Young Bae
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(2), 178; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14020178 - 12 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1472
Abstract
Double buffer layers composed of (AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 structures were employed to grow a Sn-doped α-Ga2O3 epitaxial thin film on a sapphire substrate using mist chemical vapor deposition. The insertion of [...] Read more.
Double buffer layers composed of (AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 structures were employed to grow a Sn-doped α-Ga2O3 epitaxial thin film on a sapphire substrate using mist chemical vapor deposition. The insertion of double buffer layers improved the crystal quality of the upper-grown Sn-doped α-Ga2O3 thin films by blocking dislocation generated by the substrates. Rapid thermal annealing was conducted for the double buffer layers at phase transition temperatures of 700–800 °C. The slight mixing of κ and β phases further improved the crystallinity of the grown Sn-Ga2O3 thin film through local lateral overgrowth. The electron mobility of the Sn-Ga2O3 thin films was also significantly improved due to the smoothened interface and the diffusion of Al. Therefore, rapid thermal annealing with the double buffer layer proved advantageous in achieving strong electrical properties for Ga2O3 semiconductor devices within a shorter processing time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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Review

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27 pages, 4667 KiB  
Review
Quantum Dots as a Potential Multifunctional Material for the Enhancement of Clinical Diagnosis Strategies and Cancer Treatments
by Wenqi Guo, Xueru Song, Jiaqi Liu, Wanyi Liu, Xiaoyuan Chu and Zengjie Lei
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(13), 1088; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14131088 - 25 Jun 2024
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2633
Abstract
Quantum dots (QDs) represent a class of nanoscale wide bandgap semiconductors, and are primarily composed of metals, lipids, or polymers. Their unique electronic and optical properties, which stem from their wide bandgap characteristics, offer significant advantages for early cancer detection and treatment. Metal [...] Read more.
Quantum dots (QDs) represent a class of nanoscale wide bandgap semiconductors, and are primarily composed of metals, lipids, or polymers. Their unique electronic and optical properties, which stem from their wide bandgap characteristics, offer significant advantages for early cancer detection and treatment. Metal QDs have already demonstrated therapeutic potential in early tumor imaging and therapy. However, biological toxicity has led to the development of various non-functionalized QDs, such as carbon QDs (CQDs), graphene QDs (GQDs), black phosphorus QDs (BPQDs) and perovskite quantum dots (PQDs). To meet the diverse needs of clinical cancer treatment, functionalized QDs with an array of modifications (lipid, protein, organic, and inorganic) have been further developed. These advancements combine the unique material properties of QDs with the targeted capabilities of biological therapy to effectively kill tumors through photodynamic therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and other means. In addition to tumor-specific therapy, the fluorescence quantum yield of QDs has gradually increased with technological progress, enabling their significant application in both in vivo and in vitro imaging. This review delves into the role of QDs in the development and improvement of clinical cancer treatments, emphasizing their wide bandgap semiconductor properties. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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22 pages, 35017 KiB  
Review
Transition Metal Oxide Nanomaterials: New Weapons to Boost Anti-Tumor Immunity Cycle
by Wanyi Liu, Xueru Song, Qiong Jiang, Wenqi Guo, Jiaqi Liu, Xiaoyuan Chu and Zengjie Lei
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(13), 1064; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14131064 - 21 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1439
Abstract
Semiconductor nanomaterials have emerged as a significant factor in the advancement of tumor immunotherapy. This review discusses the potential of transition metal oxide (TMO) nanomaterials in the realm of anti-tumor immune modulation. These binary inorganic semiconductor compounds possess high electron mobility, extended ductility, [...] Read more.
Semiconductor nanomaterials have emerged as a significant factor in the advancement of tumor immunotherapy. This review discusses the potential of transition metal oxide (TMO) nanomaterials in the realm of anti-tumor immune modulation. These binary inorganic semiconductor compounds possess high electron mobility, extended ductility, and strong stability. Apart from being primary thermistor materials, they also serve as potent agents in enhancing the anti-tumor immunity cycle. The diverse metal oxidation states of TMOs result in a range of electronic properties, from metallicity to wide-bandgap insulating behavior. Notably, titanium oxide, manganese oxide, iron oxide, zinc oxide, and copper oxide have garnered interest due to their presence in tumor tissues and potential therapeutic implications. These nanoparticles (NPs) kickstart the tumor immunity cycle by inducing immunogenic cell death (ICD), prompting the release of ICD and tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) and working in conjunction with various therapies to trigger dendritic cell (DC) maturation, T cell response, and infiltration. Furthermore, they can alter the tumor microenvironment (TME) by reprogramming immunosuppressive tumor-associated macrophages into an inflammatory state, thereby impeding tumor growth. This review aims to bring attention to the research community regarding the diversity and significance of TMOs in the tumor immunity cycle, while also underscoring the potential and challenges associated with using TMOs in tumor immunotherapy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Wide-Bandgap Semiconductor Nanomaterials)
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