Infrared spectroscopy and the ferromagnetic transition in Gd

The low energy electronic structure of Gd has been investigated experimentally by infrared reflectance spectroscopy, and theoretically from first principles, using the fully relativistic Dirac linear-muffin-tin-orbital (LMTO) method in the local spin density approximation (LSDA) as well as within th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of physics. Condensed matter Vol. 25; no. 3; p. 036002
Main Authors:	Obied, L H, Crandles, D A, Antonov, V N, Bose, S K, Jepsen, O
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England 23-01-2013
Subjects:	Crystallography, X-Ray Gadolinium - chemistry Magnets - chemistry Models, Theoretical Quantum Theory Spectrophotometry, Infrared Temperature Vibration
Online Access:	Get more information
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Summary:	The low energy electronic structure of Gd has been investigated experimentally by infrared reflectance spectroscopy, and theoretically from first principles, using the fully relativistic Dirac linear-muffin-tin-orbital (LMTO) method in the local spin density approximation (LSDA) as well as within the LSDA + U approach. The reflectance of a Gd single crystal was measured with the electric field in the plane perpendicular to the c-axis for temperatures between 50 K and slightly above the Curie temperature (293 K) in the frequency range between 100 and 12 000 cm(-1) (0.013-1.5 eV). As Gd enters the ferromagnetic state, the dissipative part of the optical conductivity exhibits interesting spectral weight transfers over the whole spectral range measured. It is shown that the ab initio calculations reproduce well the experimental spectra for the ferromagnetic state and allow one to explain the microscopic origin of the optical response of Gd in terms of interband transitions.
ISSN:	1361-648X
DOI:	10.1088/0953-8984/25/3/036002