Module-3: Hall effect- Hall probe and measurement

Background

Hall effect was observed for the time in 1879 by Edward Hall. He proposed that aselectric current flows
througha specimenkept inside a magnetic field, a voltage develops across this sample. The magnitude of
this voltage is proportional to the current as well as the magnetic field, while its direction is perpendicular
to the directions of both currentand the magnetic field. The effect is termed as ‘Hall effect’ and forms the
basis for several applications as well as devices, e.g., magnetic field meter, hall effect multiplier and
motion detectors.

With the experiments, Edward Hall successfully determined the sign of the charge carriers in the
conductor for the first time.Presently, Hall effect is extensively used in measurements such as:

 Whether the given specimen is a metal or semiconductor.

In fact, the principal motivation for exploring Hall effect towards better understanding the electrical
properties of materials comes from the failures of simple model of metallic conductivity to explain the
measurements performed by Hall effect.

3.1 Hall Effect

Let us assume a slab of a conducting material as depicted in Figure 1. Let ‘L’ be its length along x-axis,
‘w’ be its width along y-axis and ‘t’ its thickness along z-axis.

Figure 1Geometrical representation of the fields and sample in a typical Hall effect experiment.

Assuming the conductor has:

q = charge(which may be either positive or negative or both, but here we will considersingle sign)

n = density of charge carriers (or the number of charge carriers per unit volume)

vx= drift velocity of the charge carriers, when a current Ixflows in positive x-direction.
Drift velocity is the average velocity of the charge carriers with which they traverse the conducting
material on application of external electric field. Without application of any external field, charge carriers
possess random thermal motion in the conductor such that there is no net transfer of carriers along the
length of the conductor. However, when electric field is applied, there is a net transfer of carriers along
the conductor length.Current (Ix) can be obtained by the product of current density (J x) and the area of
cross-section of the conductor (wt). Moreover, Jx is the product of charge density and the drift velocity
(vx). Thus, the current can be expressed as:

Ix = Jxωt = nqvxωt ………………………………….... (1)

The current (Ix) across the conductor is induced by the electric field (Ex) applied along theconductor
length. When current scales directly with the electric field, the material is said to be obeying the Ohm’s
law, usually expressed as:

Jx = σEx ………………………………………......…. (2)

here σ represents the conductivity of the material of the conductor. Suppose a magnetic field acts
perpendicular to the plane of this conducting slab. The Lorentz force (qv*B) acts on the charge carriers
and deflects them along one end of the slab. This deflection causes the charge carriers to accumulate near
one side of the slab, thereby creating a transverse electric field Eycounteracting the force due to magnetic
field. When the strength of this counter field is sufficient to balance the force by the magnetic field, there
is no net flow of carriers along y-direction. This can be written as:

Ey = vxBz…………………………………………….. (3)

here Ey is electric field, also termed as Hall field, alongy-direction and Bzis the magnetic field alongz-
direction. The Hall voltage developed VHalong the conductor is:

………………….…….….........….. (4)

Equations (1), (3) and (4) yield:

…………………………….………...….. (5)

(1/nq) term is often describedas the Hall coefficient (RH):

RH = 1/nq……………………………………………. (6)

The sign of hall coefficient depends on the type of carriers, such that it is positive for positive charge
carriers and negative for negative charge carriers.Practically, the sign of the carriers is determined by the
polarity of VH. The S.I. units of RH are [m3/C] or commonly [m3/A-s].

3.2 The Hall effect in metals and semiconductors

In practice, the charge carriers often encounter some resistance while travelling through a material. The
resistance to the flow of charge carriers arises from scattering of charge carriers from other charge
carriers, impurities, or lattice vibrations.An applied field accelerates the charge carriers, however, it might
lose its energy due to scattering. If the average time between successive scatterings is τ, then on an
average we have a retarding force which acts on the carriers and is given by:

………………………………………. (7)

here m represents the mass of the charge carrier. Under the impact of applied electric and magnetic fields,
Newton’s second law becomes

…………………………………. (8)

here vrepresentsthe average velocity of all carriers.

Under steady state conditions, time derivative of vbecomes zero. Following the convention ofB pointing
towards z-axis, and setting left hand side of Eq. (8) to zero,yields:

…………………….……………. (9)

Using Eq. (1) for all the components to solve Eq. (9) for vx, vy and vz in terms of the components of Eand
Bz we obtain:

…...…………… ……….. (10)

here,

……………...………………………... (11)

and

……...……...………………………... (12)

τ is termed as the relaxation time. The angular frequency,ωc is called the cyclotron frequency, and
represents the frequency with which a charge rotates within the magnetic field. Thus, it denotes the
measure of the field strength. The experiments can be categorized as: (a) weak-field limit; and (b) strong-
field limit depending upon the value of ωcτ. For weak magnetic fields and/or short relaxation time,ωcτ ≪
1, the experiment is considered to be in weak-field limit. Whereas for ωcτ ≫ 1 the experiment is in strong-
field limit.Several materials behave differently under weak and strong field limits, e.g., aluminum.
However, while considering single type of charge carriers, the weak and strong fields are not considered
separately.

The above discussion considers the electric current to be an outcome of the charge carriers moving
independentto each other and responding to the applied field as classical particles. However, electrons are
fermions or the quantum particles and behave like waves. When we consider electrons as quantum
independent particles that move freely, rather thanfreely moving classical independent particles, there is
slight variation in the results obtained thus far. While considering free-electron quantum gas, the obtained
hall coefficient is 1/nq (same as the classical case) along with nil magnetoresistance. The difference in
results is more evident when a more realistic model of solid matter is considered, e.g., crystals. Since the
atoms in a crystal are positioned in a periodic lattice, the electrons experience a periodic potential while
moving through the lattice. This effect is strongest for the valence electrons or the electrons present in
outer orbital of atoms; and particularly the valence electrons for whose de Broglie wavelength approaches
the spacing of theperiodicity of the potential. The allowed energies of the valence electrons within the
periodic potential include a set of energy bands having gaps in between them. If the number of valence
electrons per unit cell of a crystal is exactly enough to fill a band, the solid is a poor conductor, because
by symmetry, the momentum states at each energy state will be occupied. These momentum states point
in opposite direction. For conduction, the electron should be able to jump a gap to reach avacant state.
When these gaps are big, higher energy is required to jump them, this is the case for an insulator. On the
other hand, when these gaps are small, room temperature thermal energy can cause sufficient electrons to
jump these gaps, which is the case for the semiconductors. However, when the valence electrons are not
enough to fill a gap, thus, there are several vacant momentum states which can be filled by the electrons.
Such a material becomes good conductor, e.g., metals.

The type of conduction is strongly affected by the shape of energy surface, i.e., the band structure. The
electronic states which have energies near the bottom of the band (or the lowest lying allowed states) act
as free electrons, only with the exception that they respond to the applied field like a lighter or heavier
particle. Thus, the mass of the electron ‘m’ changes to the effective mass ‘m*’. Quite interestingly, the
electrons having energies near the top of the band behave as the particles having negative mass. This
means that when field is applied, they oppositely accelerate the free electron. For simplicity, let us
consider these particle states as behaving like positive charge, and such states are known as ‘hole’ states.
Alternatively, the periodic lattice diffracts the electronic states with wave numbers near the extremes of
the band, similar to the diffraction of light waves from a grating. This implies that the motion of the
electron wave is highly modified, sometimes reversed, similar to the manner, light of specific color is
reflected by a grating at specific angles. Sincesemiconductors have small bandgap, thermal energy is
enough to excite the electrons to jump the bandgap. This results in creation of electron-like state near the
bottom of the upper band, and hole-like state near the top of the lower band. Both states carry current, and
the hole-like state acts as a positive charge. The number of these current carrying states exhibits an
exponential dependence on temperature, i.e., varies with the Boltzmann factor as exp(-Eg/kT), here
Egrepresents energy gap. The simultaneous existence of electron and hole states forms the basis of ‘two-
band’ model of the Hall effect. Let Re be the Hall coefficient for electrons and Rh be the Hall coefficient
for holes, as expressed in Eq. (6). When σ = σe + σh, where σeis the conductivity for electrons and
σhrepresents hole conductivity, as expressed in Eq. (11).Thus, total Hall coefficient as:

…...……...………………………... (13)
In this relation, m is replaced by m* (effective mass), and the charge (q) is considered to be positive for
holes and negative for electrons. Eq. (13) can be obtained from Eq. (10) for weak field limit (or ωcτ ≪ 1).
For semiconductors, the carrier mobility (µ) can be described as:

…...……...……………………………...... (14)

For the two-band model, conductivity can be written as:

……………………………...... (15)

Also, Hall coefficient for weak-field limit becomes:

…………………….……...... (16)

here, the magnitude of the charge is assumed to be equal for both electrons and holes.

In case of metals, thedensity of charge carriers as well as the sign of Hall coefficient depends upon the
energy band structure of the metal. Alkali (Li, Na, etc.) and transition (Cu, Ag, etc.) metals have negative
(electron) charge carriers with the charge carrier density of one electron per atom. In this case, Eq. (6) can
be used to obtain the Hall coefficient. However, in case of semiconductors, the band structure gives rise to
both negative (electrons) and positive (holes) charge carriers, and both contribute to the overall electrical
conductivity. Charge carrier density is dominated by doping at room temperature and thus, either
electrons or holes are prominent conductivity contributors. However, at elevated temperatures, there is
thermal generation of electron-hole pairs, resulting in significant enhancement in the conductivity since
both type of carriers conduct. In this case, the expression for Hall coefficient is rather complex and Eq.
(16) needs to be used. As a matter of fact, the density of carriers in a semiconductor is much lower than
the metals. Therefore, VH is higher in metals for given current, magnetic field, and film thickness values.

Recently, quantum Hall effect has been illustrated in very thin films at low temperature and high
magnetic field conditions. Quantum Hall effect is more prominent in extremely small objects and at very
low temperatures. In these conditions, the energy levels become quantized owing to the splitting of
energy levels takes place in very small structures, and the low-lying states get filled at low temperatures.
Rather than varying linearly with Bz, Hall resistance (VH/Ix) demonstrates steps with increase in Bz. And
the value of this resistance at ith step is h/(e2i), where i is integer. The reciprocal of Hall resistance, or the
Hall conductance increases in integral steps. The term e2/h is known as the fundamental unit of
conductance. In addition to this, fractional quantum Hall effect has recently been demonstrated, wherein
the conductance increases in fractions of e2/h. This type of behavior requires theory beyond quantum
confinement effects.

3.3 Hall Effect: Hall measurement by van der Pauw method

FL= qvB

here q is coulombic charge of the particle, v is velocity (cm/s), and B is strength of magnetic field
(Wb/cm²).

Figure 2: The Hall Effect use for van der Pauw analysis: (a) current flows in a piece of semiconductor,
(b) electrons travelling under the influence of current flow, (c) electrons accumulate at one end under the
influence of magnetic field, and (d) resultant electric field and Hall voltage.

The application of current (I) on a semiconductor piece leads to the uniform flow of electrons through it
(Figure (a-b)). Velocity (v) of the electrons is given by:

here, n is density of electrons, A is area of cross-sectional.

An external magnetic field, perpendicular to the current, applies Lorentz force on the semiconductor and
results in accumulation of electrons near one edge of the sample (Figure (c)). Lorentz force experienced
by the electrons is:

The accumulation of charge at one end of the semiconductor creates an electric field across the sample
(Figure (d)). The resulting potential difference across the sample is termed Hall voltage, VH .
Interestingly, the current flows along the material, indicating that the Lorentz force is balanced by the
force on electrons applied by electric field. Strength of this electric field can be given by:

Hall voltage can be calculated by multiplying the electric field strength with sample width:

Here, d represents the sample depth. As sheet density, ns, is nothing but the electrons density multiplied
by sample depth, Hall voltage can be written in terms of sheet density as:

3.4 Hall Probe and measurement

Hall probe is an instrument to measure strength of the magnetic field. The measurement of large magnetic
fields is often done by the Hall probe. It is a metallic strip which carries an electric current from left to
right. The working of the probe can be summarized as:

1. A magnetic field, perpendicular to the direction of current flowing in the probe, is applied.
Consequently, the charge carriers no longer move from left to right in the probe.
2. Lorentz force causes the positive charge carriers to move upwards while negative charge carriers
are pushed downwards. This separation of charge carriers induces an electric potential across the
probe.
3. This potential varies with the magnetic field. This potential is known as the Hall voltage and is
measured by the Hall probe. Any variation in magnetic field can thus be detected by the Hall
probe.

The Hall probe includes a compound semiconductor crystal, like indium antimonide, supported by
aluminum backing plate, and encapsulated inside the probe head. Probe handle is perpendicular to the
crystal plane.

When Hall probe is placed such that the lines of magnetic field pass at right angles through it, the meter
reflects the value of magnetic flux density (B). Current is flowed in the crystal, and when it is placed
inside a magnetic field, develops a "Hall voltage". Hall Effect can be observed in a conductor when it is
moved in a uniform magnetic field. Movement of charge carriers forces magnetic field to apply
Lorentz force on them. This results in charge separation, with an accumulation of positive (or negative)
charge on the bottom (or top) of the plate. The probe handle is usually made up of non-ferrous material
and therefore, does not disturb the field.
Before using, calibration of the Hall probe is requiredwith known values of field strengths. In solenoids,
Hall probe is positioned in the center.

Review your learning:

1. Explain Van der Pauw method in details and how it is used for Hall Effect measurement?

2.What is Hall Effect? Explain the mechanism in context with the Lorentz force.

Reference

[1] http://courses.washington.edu/phys431/hall_effect/hall_effect.pdf

[2] Van der Pauw Hall Effect Measurement Physics U600 – AdvPhysLab-1 – Spring 2009 D. Heiman,
Northeastern University, 5/23/09.

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_der_Pauw_method.

[4] S. Sanfilippo “Hall probes: physics and application to magnetometry” Paul Scherrer Institut, Villigen,
Switzerland