Temperature evolution of the band gap in BiFeO3 traced by resonant Raman scattering

Mads Christof Weber, Mael Guennou, Constance Toulouse, Maximilien Cazayous, Yannick Gillet, Xavier Gonze, and Jens Kreisel
Phys. Rev. B 93, 125204 – Published 7 March 2016

Abstract

Knowledge of the electronic band structure of multiferroic oxides, crucial for the understanding and tuning of photoinduced effects, remains very limited even in the model and thoroughly studied BiFeO3. Here, we investigate the electronic band structure of BiFeO3 using Raman scattering with twelve different excitation wavelengths ranging from the blue to the near infrared. We show that resonant Raman signatures can be assigned to direct and indirect electronic transitions, as well as in-gap electronic levels, most likely associated with oxygen vacancies. Their temperature evolution establishes that the remarkable and intriguing variation of the optical band gap can be related to the shrinking of an indirect electronic band gap, while the energies for direct electronic transitions remains nearly temperature independent.

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  • Received 23 April 2015
  • Revised 4 February 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.125204

©2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Physical Systems
Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Mads Christof Weber1,2, Mael Guennou1, Constance Toulouse3, Maximilien Cazayous3, Yannick Gillet4, Xavier Gonze4, and Jens Kreisel1,2

  • 1Materials Research and Technology Department, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology, 41 rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
  • 2Physics and Materials Science Research Unit, University of Luxembourg, 41 Rue du Brill, L-4422 Belvaux, Luxembourg
  • 3Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques (UMR 7162 CNRS), Université Paris Diderot–Paris 7, 75205 Paris cedex 13, France
  • 4Université catholique de Louvain, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences, Nanoscopic Physics, Chemin des Étoiles 8, bte L7.03.01, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

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Issue

Vol. 93, Iss. 12 — 15 March 2016

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