Identification of electron and hole traps in KH2PO4 crystals

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) has been used to characterize a hole trap and several electron traps in single crystals of potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KH2PO4 or KDP). The paramagnetic charge states of these centers are produced by ionizing radiation (e.g., x rays or a 266 nm beam from a pulsed Nd:YAG laser) and are stable for days and even weeks at room temperature. One center consists of a hole trapped on an oxygen ion adjacent to a silicon impurity located on a phosphorus site. This defect has a small, but easily observed, hyperfine interaction with the adjacent substitutional proton. The other centers are formed when an electron is trapped at an oxygen vacancy. These latter defects are best described as (PO3)(2-) molecular ions, where the primary phosphorus nucleus is responsible for a large hyperfine splitting (500-800 G in magnitude). Five EPR spectra representing variations of these oxygen vacancy centers are observed, with the differences being attributed to the relative position of a nearby cation vacancy, either a missing proton or potassium. An angular study of the EPR spectra, conducted at room temperature, provided principal values and principal directions for the g matrices and hyperfine matrices for the hole center and two of the electron centers. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.