Ga2O3 is an ultrawide bandgap semiconductor material platform for next-generation power electronics, largely owing to commercially-available single-crystal substrates that can be grown via industrially-scalable processes. Transition metals such as Ir, Cr, and Fe incorporated during growth can strongly influence the resulting optical and electrical properties of single crystals, with Fe now the de facto dopant for achieving semi-insulating substrates. Several other transition metals have been shown to exhibit diverse electronic behavior, acting as deep acceptors, deep donors, or even as efficient shallow donors, depending on how they incorporate into the lattice. Here we survey the current understanding of transition metal point defects in Ga2O3, focusing on their potential optical and electrical consequences from insights gained through first-principles-based calculations employing hybrid functionals.
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