Defect-induced absorption-band-edge values in β-FeSi2

Abstract
We have acquired optical transmission data on epitaxial thin films of semiconducting iron disilicide grown by pulsed laser deposition. Analysis of defect densities shows that values of the optical band-gap energy are effective band gaps that are lowered from the intrinsic value by the existence of band tails in the density of states. We propose that this influence may account for the wide range of optical band-gap energies reported for this material. We also find that the energy width of the defect bands can affect the assignment of the nature of the band-gap transition.

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