Comments on the stability of charge states and locations for hydrogen and muonium in semiconductors

This paper brings together some current concepts concerning hydrogen states in semiconductors (illustrated with reference to silicon but quite generally applicable) and highlight certain findings of recent quantum electronic structure calculations for defect centres involving hydrogen and its isotopes. As regards muonium, the situation which held in the early μSR literature 1] is entirely reversed: the location and structure of Mu^* are now well established 2], whereas the precise location and the nature of the metastability of Mu′ have become open questions! In fact, neither state is stable in the presence of other electrically active impurities, which undoubtedly accounts for the difficulty in detecting paramagnetic protium. The implications for the interpretation of existing data, and for various possible future experiments, are examined.