A walk on the frontier of energy electronics with power ultra-wide bandgap oxides and ultra-thin neuromorphic 2D materials

Ultra-wide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors and ultra-thin two-dimensional materials (2D) are at the very frontier of the electronics for energy management or energy electronics. A new generation of UWBG semiconductors will open new territories for higher power rated power electronics and deeper ultraviolet optoelectronics. Gallium oxide - Ga₂O₃ (4.5-4.9 eV), has recently emerged as a suitable platform for extending the limits which are set by conventional (~3 eV) WBG e.g. SiC and GaN and transparent conductive oxides (TCO) e.g. In₂O₃, ZnO, SnO₂. Besides, Ga₂O₃, the first efficient oxide semiconductor for energy electronics, is opening the door to many more semiconductor oxides (indeed, the largest family of UWBGs) to be investigated. Among these new power electronic materials, ZnGa₂O₄ (~5 eV) enables bipolar energy electronics, based on a spinel chemistry, for the first time. In the lower power rating end, power consumption also is also a main issue for modern computers and supercomputers. With the predicted end of the Moore’s law, the memory wall and the heat wall, new electronics materials and new computing paradigms are required to balance the big data (information) and energy requirements, just as the human brain does. Atomically thin 2D-materials, and the rich associated material systems (e.g. graphene (metal), MoS₂ (semiconductor) and h-BN (insulator)), have also attracted a lot of attention recently for beyond-silicon neuromorphic computing with record ultra-low power consumption. Thus, energy nanoelectronics based on UWBG and 2D materials are simultaneously extending the current frontiers of electronics and addressing the issue of electricity consumption, a central theme in the actions against climate change.