Spin-Split Joint Density of States in GdN

Abstract

We present an investigation of the optical constants of the near stoichiometric GdN films. Transmission and reflection spectra are collected for the paramagnetic and the ferromagnetic GdN in the photon energy range of 0.5–5.5 eV. In the ferromagnetic phase, behaviors of minority and majority spin states are specifically focussed on, which indicate spin-split joint density of states. The results confirm the LSDA+U estimates of energy gap associated with the majority-spins and also the magnitude of spin splitting.