Optical absorption spectrum of hematite, αFe2O3 near IR to UV

Optical absorption spectra have been measured on thin (011) single crystal platelets and on highly oriented (110) thin films of αFe₂O₃. We have observed and assigned some of the absorption bands predicted by ligand field theory and SCF-Xα calculations. The temperature dependence of the 11760 cm^?1 single crystal band has been fitted to the function $\text{? = ?}{}_0\text{(1 + exp (?}\text{θ}\text{T}\text{))}$ with $\text{?}{}_0\text{= 0.85 × 10}{}^{\mathrm{?4}}$ and θ = 200 K (139 cm^?1). We have measured the photocurrent as a function of wavelength and have found several peaks that coincide with optical absorption bands.