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The development of materials and fabrication technology for field-controlled spectrally active optics is essential
for applications such as membrane optics, filters for LIDARs, windows for sensors, telescopes, spectroscopes, cameras
and flat-panel displays. The dopants of rare earth elements, in a host of optical systems, create a number of absorption
and emission band structures and can easily be incorporated into many high quality crystalline and amorphous hosts. In
wide band-gap semiconductors like ScN, the existing deep levels can capture or emit the mobile charges, and can be
ionized with the loss or capture of the carriers which are the fundamental basis of concept for smart optic materials. The
band gap shrinkage or splitting with dopants supports the possibility of this concept.
In the present work, a semi-metallic material (ScN) was doped with rare earth elements (Er, Ho) and tested
under an applied electric field to characterize spectral and refractive index shifts by either Stark or Zeeman Effect. These
effects can be verified using the UV-Vis spectroscopy, the Hall Effect measurement and the ellipsometric spectroscopy.
The optical band gaps of ScN doped with Er and doped with Ho were experimentally estimated as 2.33eV and 2.24eV
(±0.2eV) respectively. This is less than that of undoped ScN (2.5±0.2eV). The red-shifted absorption onset is a direct
evidence for the decrease of band gap energy (Eg), and the broadening of valence band states is attributable to the doping
cases. A decrease in refractive index with an applied field was observed as a small shift in absorption coefficient using a
variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometer. In the presence of an electric field, mobile carriers are redistributed within the
space charge region (SCR) to produce this electro-refractive effect. The shift in refractive index is also affected by the
density and location of deep potential wells within the SCR. In addition, the microstructure change was observed by a
TEM analysis. These results give an insight for future applications for the field-controlled spectrally active material
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