Phosphorus, the current standard n-type dopant in diamond, has been correlated
with isotropic, trigonal and tetragonal paramagnetic centres, suggesting that
it may undergo a symmetry lowering distortion, perhaps of a Jahn–Teller
type. We present first-principles calculations for examining the energetics of
various sub-group symmetries of the on-site, tetrahedral donor, and show that
C2v,
C3v
and D2d
conformations reduce the total energy and conform to the Jahn–Teller theorem. We also
present a qualitative explanation of the resulting quantum-mechanical states. The small
amount of energy saved by the distortion may indicate a dynamic Jahn–Teller effect.