Hall Effect

Physics 322L: Report 1

Abstract
This lab was an investigation into the Hall effect for semiconductors. The requirements for satisfactory completion of this lab include the determination of Hall coefficient for a particular semiconductor sample, determination of the sign and density of charge carriers within the sample, and the determination of the mobility of the charge carriers.

Introduction
In the presence of a magnetic field applied perpendicularly to current within a conductor, the charge carriers of the current experience a Lorentz force causing accumulation of charge on conductor surface. This accumulation leaves equal and opposite charges on opposite surfaces of the conductor, thereby creating a transverse electric potential, the Hall voltage VH. The Hall voltage can be given as Where t is the length of the semiconducting sample parallel to the applied magnetic field . RH is the Hall coefficient, a property of the material describing its conductivity. R H can be given as Where its sign is determined by the sign of its charge carriers, e is the magnitude of its charge carriers, and n(carriers/unit volume) is the magnitude of the charge carrier density. Within a semiconductor, the charge carriers can be either electrons or positive holes. The mobility can be given as or Where is the mobility of the charge carriers within , is their drift velocity, and is the material resistivity. Finally, a known current I and sample with known RH can be used to measure unknown magnetic fields by measuring VH. A probe of this type has sensitivity defined as

Procedure
1. 2. Setup Hall probe, power supply, electromagnet, and circuits as in diagram 1. Zero the gaussmeter, voltmeter, and ammeter. Measure dimensions of sample with traveling microscope. Experiment 1: Relationship between VH and 1. 2. 3. 4. Establish a magnetic field of 4 kilogauss in the electromagnet by increasing the current. Establish a current in circuit 1 (given by diagram 1) of around 20 mA. Record the resulting VH from the voltmeter. Repeat step 2 and 3 by incrementing the current by 20 mA until reaching around 380 mA. Experiment 2: Relationship between VH and 1. 2. 3. 4. Establish a current of around 200 mA in circuit 1. Establish a magnetic field of around 1 kilogauss. Record resulting VH from voltmeter. Repeat 2 and 3 by incrementing the magnetic field by approximately .2 kilogauss, until reaching around 3.6 kilogauss.

Experiment 3: Determination of Resistance 1. 2. 3. 4. Remove electromagnet component of setup and rewire circuit to measure the voltage from selected currents. Establish a current of around 50 mA. Record corresponding V. Repeat 2 and 3, iterating by approximately 20 mA, until reaching 230 mA. Experiment 4: Temperature Dependence 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Reset the circuit to its experiment 1 state. Setup thermocouple, attach to sample. Establish a magnetic field of 4 kilogauss and a current of 120 mA. Wrap sample in thin layer of tissue to promote slower heating Reduce temperature by application of liquid nitrogen to sample. Once the temperature stabilizes, record the induced VH at each corresponding temperature.

Data
The following figures appear to be missing error bars. This is due to their very small size.

300 250 Voltage (mV) 200 150 100 50 0

Experiment 1
y = 11.899x - 1.3967 R = 0.9959

39.97

361.4

19.95

60.46

80.15

198.9

219.8

240.1

260.5

280.1

301.7

309.6

321.5

341.4

100.92

120.44

139.72

159.82

Current (mA)
Figure 1: B = 4 KGauss

179.77

380.4

40

Experiment 2
140 120 100 V (mV) 80 60 40 20 0

y = 6.6326x + 26.579 R = 0.9999

B (mT)

Figure 2: I = 200 mA

Experiment 3
600 500 V (mV) 400 300 200 100 0

y = 39.59x + 55.022 R = 0.9999

I (mA)

Figure 3

Experiment 4: Trial 1
85 84 83 V (mV) 82 81 80 79 78 77 262.15 272.15 281.85 288.25 T (K) 292.05 301.65 y = -0.1549x + 83.823 R = 0.9756

Figure 4: B = 4 KGauss, I = 120 mA

Results and Analysis

Where VH is in mV and I is in mA. RH can then be determined from the data and sample dimensions as

And Where Rs is the R2 value from Figure 1. Upon calculation of RH, it was found that the particular sample has an average RH = 0.04491 0.0043548 (Table 1). The actual RH varied between 0.4357 for I = 0.3804 and 0.045907 for I=0.03997. These values fall outside of the calculated uncertainty in RH. This error could have arisen from numerous sources. One source was the instability of the circuit. Often it was noted that a large change in potential appeared for no apparent reason. Another error is that the magnetic field, while set at a constant value, actually steadily decayed as the experiment progressed. This would lead to direct error in the calculation of RH. For the predominantly negative charge carriers, the charge density can be calculated as

And

Where RH is the previously calculated value and e = 1.602*10 -19 is the magnitude of the electrons charge. The average value of the charge density was found to be n = -1.39034*1020 carriers/m3 (Table 1). This charge density is considerably lower than that for metals such as Na, where n=-2.49688E+25. The average sensitivity was found to be 1.6633, determined as

The purpose of the second experiment was to establish a relationship between V H and the magnetic field. A plot of this data (figure 2) shows another direct and linear relationship given by

Where VH is in mV and B is in T. The average sensitivity was found to be 1.6629 (Table 2), which agrees well with experiment 1. Similar to experiment 1, a noticeable decay in the current was found by the time the experiment completed, again giving rise to considerable error. The purpose of the third experiment was to determine the resistance of the sample. The plotted data in Figure 3 gives

Where VH is in mV and I is in mA. This experiment eliminates the Hall effect and so the resistance can be given as

And Where correspond to apparatus uncertainties ( mA or mV). The average resistance was found to be R=1.925 (Table 3). The determination of the resistance allows the calculation of the samples resistivity. Returning to the data from experiment 1, the average resistivity = 19.1678 ohm-m was determined from

And

Where A is the cross-sectional area of the sample, L is the length of the sample, and s correspond to uncertainties ( . The resistivity of copper is approximately 1.68*108 ohm-m which is much less than the calculated resistivity. The average conductivity of the material was determined to be = 0.05217 .0015 S/m (Table 3) from

And

 An approximant value for the conductivity of copper would be = 5.96*10 7 S/m, which is far greater than the calculated conductivity. The mobile carrier mobility can then be calculated as

And The average mobility was found to be = -0.002349 (Table 1).

The purpose of the final experiment was to determine if RH is dependent upon temperature. Figure 4 gives the relationship between VH and T as

Using the equations as in experiment 1, RH values for each temperature data point were calculated. These values were then compared to the standard room temperature average R H value from experiment 1. As Table 4 shows, the reduction in temperature increases the expected RH value.

Conclusion
In conclusion the average value of RH was found to be RH= 0.04491 0.0043548. The charge density of the sample was n = -1.39034*1020 carriers/m3 . The average resistance was R=1.925 The average resistivity was = 19.1678 ohm-m and average conductivity was therefore = 0.05217 .0015 S/m. The average mobility was found to be = -0.002349 .

Appendix

Diagram 1

Table 1