Hydrogen incorporation in diamond: the vacancy-hydrogen complex
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Updated: Aug 24, 2026

Quantification of Hydrogen Concentrations in Surface and Interface Layers and Bulk Materials through Depth Profiling with Nuclear Reaction Analysis
Published on: March 29, 2016
Claire Glover1, M E Newton, P M Martineau
1Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
We report the identification of the vacancy-hydrogen complex in single crystal diamond synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. The S=1 defect is observed by electron paramagnetic resonance in the negative charge state. The hydrogen atom is bonded to one of the carbon atoms neighboring the vacancy. Unlike the analogous defect in silicon, no symmetry lowering reconstruction occurs between the three remaining carbon dangling orbitals. The very small measured hydrogen hyperfine interaction is explained by dipolar coupling between the hydrogen and the unpaired electron probability density delocalized on the three equivalent carbon neighbors.
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