On the nature of the carriers in ferromagnetic FeSe

The optical and electrical properties of FeSe thin films are studied by both optical absorption and Hall measurements, which suggest that ferromagnetic FeSe is a metal instead of a semiconductor. No absorption gap is observed in the whole spectrum range from far infrared to ultraviolet. Temperature dependent transport measurement indicates that FeSe has a resistivity about 10(-3) Omega cm. It is also found that there is a transition from n-type conductivity at low temperatures to p-type conductivity at higher temperatures in FeSe, which is attributed to the two-carrier transport nature and the thermal activation of localized carriers in the thin film. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.