High-k rare-earth samarium oxide (Sm2O3) films are formed on n-GaN surface and analyzed its compositional properties by XPS measurements. XPS results specify that the Sm2O3 films are formed at the interface. Then, the Au/Sm2O3/n-GaN MIS junction is prepared with a Sm2O3 as insulating layer and correlated its electrical properties with the Au/n-GaN MS junction. The MIS junction shows highest barrier height ((0.81 eV (I-V)/1.0 eV (C-V)) for MIS junction than the MS junction (0.68 eV (I-V)/0.90 eV (C-V)). Excellent rectifying property is observed with lowest reverse leakage current and higher barrier height for the MIS junction than the MS junction, implying that the Sm2O3 insulating layer effectively modified the barrier height. The barrier heights determined from I-V, Cheung's, Norde and Psi S eV plot closely matched with each other, suggesting that these techniques are reliable and valid. The estimated interface state density of the MIS junction (1.990 x 10(11) cm(-2)eV(-1) (E-C-0.82 eV)) is lower than the MS junction (9.204 x 10(12) cm(-2)eV(-1) (E-C-0.70 eV)), which demonstrates that the Sm2O3 insulating layer performs an important role in lowering the interface state density. The frequency-dependent characteristics of the MS and MIS junctions are discussed in the frequency range of 10 kHz to 1 MHz and found that the determined capacitance values decrease with increasing frequency. The forward I-V characteristic of the MS and MIS junctions reveals the ohmic behavior at low voltage regions and space-chargelimited conduction at higher voltage regions. Results reveal that the reverse leakage current in the studied MS and MIS junctions is controlled by a Poole-Frenkel emission. (C) 2017 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.