Optical Spectroscopy of SmN: Evidence for 4f Transport

Abstract

The rare-earth nitride ferromagnetic semiconductors owe their varying magnetic properties to the progressive filling of 4f shell across the series. Recent electrical transport measurements on samarium nitride, including the observation of superconductivity, have been understood in terms of a contribution from a 4f transport channel. Band structure calculations generally locate an empty majority 4f-band within the conduction band although over a wide range of possible energies. Here we report optical reflection and transmission measurements on samarium nitride between 0.01 eV to 4 eV, that demonstrate clearly that the 4f band forms the bottom of the conduction band. Results at the lowest energies show no free carrier absorption, indicating a semiconducting ground state, and supporting earlier conclusions based on transport measurements.

arXiv comment5 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (10)

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• Rare-earth mononitrides
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Electronic structure of rare-earth mononitrides: quasiatomic excitations and semiconducting bands
• 4f Conduction in the Magnetic Semiconductor NdN
• Tuneable magnetic behaviour, electronic structure and nitrogen vacancy formation in Gd${}_x$Sm${}_{1-x}$N
• On the effect of disorder in a $p$-wave flat-band superconductor