Crystal-field mediated electronic transitions of EuS up to 35 GPa.
Sci Rep 2022;
12:1217. [PMID:
35075233 PMCID:
PMC8786971 DOI:
10.1038/s41598-022-05321-9]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2021] [Accepted: 01/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
An advanced experimental and theoretical model to explain the correlation between the electronic and local structure of Eu[Formula: see text] in two different environments within a same compound, EuS, is presented. EuX monochalcogenides (X: O, S, Se, Te) exhibit anomalies in all their properties around 14 GPa with a semiconductor to metal transition. Although it is known that these changes are related to the [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] electronic transition, no consistent model of the pressure-induced modifications of the electronic structure currently exists. We show, by optical and x-ray absorption spectroscopy, and by ab initio calculations up to 35 GPa, that the pressure evolution of the crystal field plays a major role in triggering the observed electronic transitions from semiconductor to the half-metal and finally to the metallic state.
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