2MASS observations of Be stars

From the color-color diagrams and spectral indexes, it is found that the IR excesses for many samples are due to free-free and free-bound emission from the ionized material around a Be star as suggested previously and that the mean spectral index derived for the samples is 1.50+/-0.34 between J to K bands and 1.14+/-0.42 between K to A bands, respectively.

However, it is also found that there are eight Be stars that have large near infrared excess emission with spectral index values outside the range expected for freefree and freebound emission. This is likely attributed to circumstellar dust emission.