Development of semiconducting ScN

III-V semiconductors are one of the most celebrated class of materials in solid-state physics and device technologies, and are obliquities in modern information technology, solid-state lighting, electronic and optoelectronic devices. However, there is a widespread realization today that several important technologies of the modern era such as thermoelectricity that converts waste heat into electrical energy, plasmonic materials and devices that could be utilized to harvest optical energy in solar-photovoltaics, solar-thermophotovoltaics, photocatalysis, metal/semiconductor superlattices etc. require materials and heterostructure metamaterials that are not possible to achieve with traditional III-V semiconductors. Scandium nitride (ScN) is a group 3 rocksalt indirect bandgap semiconductor and can overcome some of the limitations of traditional III-V semiconductors, thus leading to novel device functionalities. However, unlike other well-known III-V semiconductors, very little attention has been devoted to understand and engineer physical properties of ScN until very recently. In this research update, the authors detail the progress that has taken place over the last several years to overcome the material engineering challenges for high-quality epitaxial ScN thin film growth, analysis of its physical properties including in thermoelectricity and solid-state lighting, n-to-p carrier-type transition, and epitaxial integration of ScN with other rocksalt metallic nitrides.