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Hydrogen molecules in ZnO are identified by their local vibrational modes. In a Raman study, interstitial H2, HD, and D2 species were found to exhibit local vibrational modes at frequencies 4145, 3628, and 2985 cm-1, respectively. After thermal treatment of vapor phase grown ZnO samples in hydrogen atmosphere, most hydrogen forms shallow donors at the bond-centered site (HBC). Subsequently, HBC migrates through the crystal and forms electrically inactive H2. These results imply that the "hidden" hydrogen in ZnO [G. A. Shi et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 5601 (2004)10.1063/1.1832736] occurs in the form of interstitial H2.

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High quality and purity single crystal ZnO samples doped with single isotopes of 63 Cu and 65 Cu, with equal concentrations of both these isotopes, and with natural Cu using a wet chemical atomic substitution reaction and anneal were studied using low temperature optical spectroscopy. Our data on the zero phonon line of the structured green band in ZnO confirm unambiguously the involvement of a single Cu atom in this defect emission. These data allow us to confirm the main features of the assignment proposed by Dingle in 1969 and to comment further on the defect structure.

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The reorientation kinetics of hydrogen in a variety of complexes in the anatase polymorph of TiO was investigated by means of stress-induced dichroism. For the hydrogen-defect resulting in an O-H vibrational mode with a frequency of 3389 cm, the energy barrier separating adjacent equivalent in-plane sites of hydrogen was determined to be independent of the isotope and equal to 0.74 ± 0.02 eV, whereas the attempt frequency was found to be (1.10 ± 0.20) × 10 and (0.75 ± 0.15) × 10 s for hydrogen and deuterium, respectively. The defect with vibrational modes at 3412 and 3417 cm previously assigned to isolated hydrogen did not reveal alignment under the stress up to room temperature, which indicates that the barrier of hydrogen motion is above 0.9 eV.

Electronic states in the upper part of the bandgap of reduced and/or hydrogenated n-type rutile TiO2 single crystals have been studied by means of thermal admittance and deep-level transient spectroscopy measurements. The studies were performed at sample temperatures between 28 and 300 K. The results reveal limited charge carrier freeze-out even at 28 K and evidence the existence of dominant shallow donors with ionization energies below 25 meV. Interstitial atomic hydrogen is considered to be a major contributor to these shallow donors, substantiated by infrared absorption measurements. Three defect energy levels with positions of about 70 meV, 95 meV, and 120 meV below the conduction band edge occur in all the studied samples, irrespective of the sample production batch and the post-growth heat treatment used. The origin of these levels is discussed in terms of electron polarons, intrinsic point defects, and/or common residual impurities, where especially interstitial titanium atoms, oxygen vacancies, and complexes involving Al atoms appear as likely candidates. In contrast, no common deep-level defect, exhibiting a charge state transition in the 200–700 meV range below the conduction band edge, is found in different samples. This may possibly indicate a strong influence on deep-level defects by the post-growth heat treatments employed.

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