Muonium and hydrogen defect centres in solids

Hydrogen and its light isotope, muonium, may both be observed in insulating crystals as trapped interstitial atoms. Their difference in mass gives rise to a small dynamic isotope effect in hyperfine coupling constant and a large difference in diffusive behaviour - muonium showing in some lattices a striking minimum in mobility versus temperature. Muonium may still be detected as isolated paramagnetic centres in the semiconductors whereas information on hydrogen in these materials is restricted to diamagnetic states in association with other impurities. Arguably one of the most significant findings of the muonium spin rotation technique is the coexistence of two distinct types of muonium centre in many of the tetrahedrally co-ordinated lattices. In literature spanning more than a decade, the isotropic state was described as ''normal'' muonium and assigned to the tetrahedral interstitial site, while the nature of the ''anomalous'' anisotropic state remained a puzzle. Within the last few years the situation has entirely reversed: the anisotropic state has been recognised as the more stable of the two and its electronic structure and (bond-centre) location have been well established, whereas the precise location of the isotropic state and the nature of its metastability have become open questions. (author)