Optical investigation of the metal-insulator transition in FeSb 2

A. Perucchi, L. Degiorgi (), Rongwei Hu, C. Petrovic and V. F. Mitrović

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, 2006, vol. 54, issue 2, 175-183

Abstract: We present a comprehensive optical study of the narrow gap FeSb 2 semiconductor. From the optical reflectivity, measured from the far infrared up to the ultraviolet spectral range, we extract the complete absorption spectrum, represented by the real part σ 1 (ω) of the complex optical conductivity. With decreasing temperature below 80 K, we find a progressive depletion of σ 1 (ω) below E g ∼300 cm -1 , the semiconducting optical gap. The suppressed (Drude) spectral weight within the gap is transferred at energies ω>E g and also partially piles up over a continuum of excitations extending in the spectral range between zero and E g . Moreover, the interaction of one phonon mode with this continuum leads to an asymmetric phonon shape. Even though several analogies between FeSb 2 and FeSi were claimed and a Kondo-insulator scenario was also invoked for both systems, our data on FeSb 2 differ in several aspects from those of FeSi. The relevance of our findings with respect to the Kondo insulator description will be addressed. Copyright EDP Sciences/Società Italiana di Fisica/Springer-Verlag 2006

Keywords: 71.27.+a Strongly correlated electron systems; heavy fermions, 71.30.+h Metal-insulator transitions and other electronic transitions, 75.30.Mb Valence fluctuation, Kondo lattice, and heavy-fermion phenomena, 78.20.-e Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films, (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1140/epjb/e2006-00433-1 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:eurphb:v:54:y:2006:i:2:p:175-183

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/10051

DOI: 10.1140/epjb/e2006-00433-1

Access Statistics for this article

The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems is currently edited by P. Hänggi and Angel Rubio

More articles in The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems from Springer, EDP Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().