Transport and near‐infrared optical properties of ErSi2 thin films

We present the study of the resistivity and Hall coefficient of ErSi2 thin films epitaxially grown on a Si substrate as a function of temperature and film thickness. Then, we report the first study of the complex index at energies below the silicon band gap (0.5–1 eV). From these data we calculate the absorption length in ErSi2, which is a critical parameter for the design of an efficient silicide silicon photodetector.