Point defects in wide-bandgap semiconductors, such as hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN), have driven enormous amounts of research due to their interesting optical properties such as quantum emission at room temperature. Defect engineering by particle irradiation is a very interesting strategy for producing quantum emitters in a controlled way. The identification of most point defects is done by electron paramagnetic resonance and related advanced techniques. Following our recent works, we present new data about point defects produced by neutron irradiation at room temperature and investigate their thermal stability in crystalline, flake and ultrafine h-BN powder. Our experimental data indicate the formation of the nitrogen antisite defect next to a nitrogen vacancy in its neutral charge state, (N_BV_N)⁰, with spin S= 1/2 in all types of h-BN showing strong axial hyperfine interaction (A _|| ≈ 95 MHz and A _⊥ ≈ 5 MHz). It is thermally stable up to ~600 C, which is similar to the disappearance of the negative charged boron vacancy, . In addition, after neutron irradiation of h-BN powder samples, a spin S= 1/2 point defect is observed presenting an axial superhyperfine interaction with two equivalent nitrogen nuclei (¹⁴N, I = 1, 99.68%), which we tentatively assign to the C_NV_B defect. It is thermally stable up to ~850 C. Another, yet-unidentified S = 1/2 center acts as a charge compensating defect at specific annealing temperatures. Our experimental results are compared and discussed with theoretical models available in the literature.

宽带隙半导体中的点缺陷（例如六方氮化硼（h-BN））由于其有趣的光学特性（例如室温下的量子发射）而已引起了大量研究。通过粒子辐照进行缺陷工程是一种以受控方式生产量子发射器的非常有趣的策略。大多数点缺陷的识别是通过电子顺磁共振和相关的先进技术完成的。根据我们最近的工作，我们提供了有关在室温下中子辐照产生的点缺陷的新数据，并研究了它们在晶体，薄片和超细h-BN粉末中的热稳定性。我们的实验数据表明，在中性电荷状态下，氮空位旁边形成了氮反位缺陷（N _B V _N）⁰，自旋小号在所有类型的h-BN的显示出强大的轴向超精细相互作用（= 1/2甲 _||听，说：95兆赫和甲 _⊥听，说：5兆赫）。在高达约600 C的温度下它是热稳定的，这与带负电的硼空位的消失相似。此外，在用中子辐照h-BN粉末样品后，观察到自旋S = 1/2点缺陷，与两个等效氮核（¹⁴ N，I = 1，99.68％）存在轴向超超精细相互作用，我们将其暂定为C _N V _B缺陷。它在约850°C的温度下具有热稳定性。另一个尚未确定的S= 1/2中心在特定退火温度下充当电荷补偿缺陷。我们的实验结果与文献中可用的理论模型进行了比较和讨论。