The effect of pressure on lattice parameter, magnetic susceptibility and reflectivity of SmS

The lattice parameter of SmS single crystals has been measured under hydrostatic pressure up to 70 kbar. The fit for the metallic phase by means of the Birch equation gives an unusually large pressure derivative of the bulk modulus B' = 11 and hence a large pressure dependence of B. No change in the nonmagnetic intermediate valence state of Sm is observed up to 24 kbar as concluded from our magnetic susceptibility measurements. Reflectivity measurements under hydrostatic pressure p > 6.5 kbar show a small plasma edge shift (∼0.08 eV) towards lower energy upon cooling from 77 to 4.2 K. Hence the low temperature resistivity anomaly is attributed to an enhanced conduction electron scattering. © 1979.