Comparison between experiment and calculated band structures for DyN and SmN

We investigate the electronic band structure of two of the rare-earth nitrides, DyN and SmN. Resistivity measurements imply that both materials have a semiconducting ground state, and both show resistivity anomalies coinciding with the magnetic transition, despite the different magnetic states in DyN and SmN. X-ray absorption and emission measurements are in excellent agreement with LSDA+U calculations, although for SmN the calculations predict a zero band gap.