ENERGY-DEPENDENCE OF THE NERNST-ETTINGSHAUSEN EFFECT INDUCED BY PULSED-LASER LIGHT IN BISMUTH-FILMS

The behavior with the irradiation energy and with the magnetic held of the thermomagnetic response induced by laser pulses in 5.5-mu m Bi fi lms at room temperature is reported in this paper. The Nernst-Ettingsh ausen coefficient at an applied magnetic field of 1 T is estimated: Q( NE) similar or equal to 1.0 x 10(-5) V/T K. A good agreement is found when these results are compared with those reported earlier in polycry stalline bulk samples obtained by a conventional method. This supports the reliability of the pulsed laser technique in the measurement of w eak transport effects and indicates that the optically pumped carriers hardly influence the transport properties of bismuth.