Hydrogen Defect-Level Pinning in Semiconductors: The Muonium Equivalent

We have determined locations for the donor and acceptor levels of muonium in six semiconductor materials (Si, Ge, GaAs, GaP, ZnSe, and 6H-SiC) as a test of defect-level pinning for hydrogen. Within theoretical band alignments, our results indicate a common energy for the equilibrium charge-transition level Mu(+/-) to within experimental uncertainties. However, this is nearly 0.5 eV higher than the energy at which the equivalent level for hydrogen was predicted to be pinned. Corrections for zero-point energy account for only about 10% of this difference. We also report experimental results for the (negative-U) difference between donor and acceptor levels for Mu to be compared with calculated values for H impurities in the same materials.