Electronic states of hydrogen in semiconductor material investigated by a combination of muon and first-principle calculations

Abstract

It has been argued from both theoretical and experimental studies that hydrogen with impurities causes unintended electrical properties in semiconductors. Therefore, it is important to understand the electronic structure of hydrogen, but it is difficult to directly investigate it in the case that hydrogen is in a dilute state. However, muons can be regarded as a light isotope of hydrogen in a material, so it is possible to investigate the electronic state of hydrogen in a dilute state by using the muon spin rotation method (µSR). We first describe the features and principles of the µSR, and then introduce an example of research on the electronic structure of hydrogen in the transparent oxide semiconductor InGaZnO₄ investigated by the combination with first-principle calculations.