Student's

Sheet
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Hall effect in n- and p-germanium (PC) (Item No.: P2530116)

Curricular Relevance

Subtopic: Experiment:
Area of Expertise: Education Level: Topic:
Molecule and Solid Hall effect in n- and p-
Physics University Modern Physics
State Physics Germanium (PC)

Difficulty Preparation Time Execution Time Recommended Group Size

Difficult 1 Hour 2 Hours 2 Students

Additional Requirements: Experiment Variations:

PC

Keywords:

Semiconductor, band theory, forbidden zone, intrinsic conductivity, extrinsic conductivity, valence band, conduction band, Lorentz force,
magnetic resistance, mobility, onductivity, band spacing, Hall coefficient

Overview

Short description

Principle

The resistivity and Hall voltage of a rectangular germanium sample are measured as a function of temperature and magnetic
field. The band spacing, the specific conductivity, the type of charge carrier and the mobility of the charge carriers are
determined from the measurements.

Fig. 1: Experimental set-up

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Equipment

Position No. Material Order No. Quantity

1 PHYWE Hall-effect unit HU 2 11801-01 1
2 Software measureLAB 14580-61 1
3 Hall effect, p-Ge, carrier board 11805-01 1
4 Hall effect, n-Ge, carrier board 11802-01 1
5 Coil, 600 turns 06514-01 2
6 Iron core, U-shaped, laminated electric steel 06501-00 1
7 Pair of pole pieces, plane, 30 x 30 x 48 mm 06489-00 1
8 Hall probe, tangential, protection cap 13610-02 1
9 PHYWE power supply, 230 V, DC: 0...12 V, 2 A / AC: 6 V, 12 V, 5 A 13506-93 1
10 Tripod base PHYWE 02002-55 1
11 Support rod, stainless steel, l = 250 mm, d = 10 mm 02031-00 1
12 Right angle clamp PHYWE 02040-55 1
13 Connecting cord, 32 A, 500 mm, red 07361-01 2
14 Connecting cord, 32 A, 500 mm, blue 07361-04 1
15 Connecting cord, 32 A, 750 mm, black 07362-05 2

Tasks
The following tasks are performed with n-doped and p-doped specimens.

1. The Hall voltage is measured at room temperature and constant magnetic field as a function of the control current .

2. The voltage across the sample is measured at room temperature and constant control current as a function of the
magnetic induction .

3. The voltage across the sample is measured at constant control current as a function of the temperature . The band
spacing of p- and n-germanium is calculated from the measurements.

4. The Hall voltage is measured as a function of the magnetic induction , at room temperature. The sign of the charge
carriers and the Hall constant together with the Hall mobility and the carrier concentration are calculated from
the measurements.

5. The Hall voltage is measured as a function of temperature at constant magnetic induction.

Robert-Bosch-Breite 10 Tel: +49 551 604 - 0 [email protected]

D - 37079 Göttingen Fax: +49 551 604 - 107 www.phywe.com
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Set-up and procedure

Set-up
The experimental set-up is shown in Fig.1. The test specimen has to be put into the hall-effect-module via the guide-groove. The
module is directly connected with the output of the power unit over the ac-input on the backside of the module.

The plate has to be brought up to the magnet very carefully, so as not to damage the crystal in particular, avoid bending the
plate. It has to be in the center between the pole pieces.

The USB port on the bottom of the module is used to connect the module to the Laptop with a USB cable.

The different measurements are controlled by the software measureLAB. The magnetic field is measured via a Hall probe, which
is connected to the module over the port on the frontside of the module, and can be directely put into the groove on the top of
the module as shown in Fig. 2. So, you can be sure, that the megnetic flux is measured directely on the test speciemen.

Fig. 2: Connection of the Hall probe to the module

To start thr measurements, start the software "measureLAB" and choose the option "Quick start" from the main page (see Fig.
3). You will recieve the start-screen, which appears before every measurement (Fig. 4).

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Fig. 3: Main page of measureLAB.

Fig. 4: Start-screen that appears before every measurement.

Here you can choose which parameters have to be measured, displaced, etc. For example, choose the sample voltage as a
function of the temperatue , and click ok, then you will recieve the measurement screen, as shown in Fig. 5. On this screen,
you can start the measuement by clicking on the blue bottom in the lower right corner of the screen. The measured values will
appear graphically on the "Diagram" and as digital values on the "Digital display".

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D - 37079 Göttingen Fax: +49 551 604 - 107 www.phywe.com
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Fig. 5: Example of measurement parameters

Procedure
Task 1:

Choos the Hall voltage , the current and the magnetic field "Tesla" as measurement parameters from the start screen
shown in Fig. 4, and click "Ok". Set the current and the magnetic field to zero and calibrate the Hall voltage to zero. Now,
set the magnetic field to a value of by changing the voltage and current on the power supply. Determine the Hall
voltage as a function of the current from to in steps of . You will receive a typical measurement
like in Fig. 7 (a) and (b) for n- and p-Germanium, respectively.

Task 2:

Choos the sample voltage , the current and the magnetic field "Tesla" as measurement parameters from the start screen
shown in Fig. 4, and click "Ok". Set the control current to . Determine the sample voltage as a function of the
positive magnetic induction up to . Calculate the change in resistance of the specimens from the measurements and
plot the results on graphs as shown in Fig. 8.

Task 3:

Choos the sample voltage , the current and the temperatue "Temp" as measurement parameters from the start screen
shown in Fig. 4, and click "Ok". At the beginning, set the current to a value of . The magnetic field is off. The current
remains nearly constant during the measurement, but the voltage changes according to a change in temperature . Start
the measurement by activating the heating coil with the ”on/off”-knob on the backside of the module. The specimen will be
heated to a maximum temperature of around and the module will stop the heating automatically. Determine the
cooling curve of the change in voltage depending on the change in temperature for a temperature range from to
room temperature. You will get typical curves as shown in Fig. 9.

Task 4:

Choos the Hall voltage , the current and the magnetic field "Tesla" as measurement parameters from the start screen
shown in Fig. 4, and click "Ok". Set the current and the magnetic field to values of zero and calibrate the Hall voltage to
zero. Now, set the current to a value of . Determine the Hall voltage as a function of the magnetic induction . Start
with by changing the polarity of the coil-current on the power supply and increase the magnetic induction in steps of
nearly . At zero point, you have to change the polarity again. A typical measurement is shown in Fig. 10.

Task 5:

Choos the Hall voltage , the current , the temperature "Temp" and the magnetic field "Tesla" as measurement parameters
from the start screen shown in Fig. 4, and click "Ok". Set the current to and the magnetic induction to .
Following the same procedure in task 3 above, determine the Hall voltage as a function of the temperature . You will
receive curves like those in Fig. 11.

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D - 37079 Göttingen Fax: +49 551 604 - 107 www.phywe.com
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Robert-Bosch-Breite 10 Tel: +49 551 604 - 0 [email protected]

D - 37079 Göttingen Fax: +49 551 604 - 107 www.phywe.com
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Theory and evaluation

Theory
If a current flows through a conducting strip of rectangular section and if the strip is traversed by a magnetic field at right
angles to the direction of the current, a voltage – the so-called Hall voltage – is produced between two superposed points on
opposite sides of the strip.

This phenomenon arises from the Lorentz force: the charge carriers giving rise to the current flowing through the sample are
deflected in the magnetic field as a function of their sign and their velocity :

where is the force acting on charge carriers and is elementary charge.

Since negative and positive charge carriers in semiconductors move in opposite directions, they are deflected also in opposite
directions.

The type of charge carrier causing the flow of current can, therefore, be determined from the polarity of the Hall voltage,
knowing the direction of the current and that of the magnetic field. That means: if the direction of the current and magnetic field
are known, the polarity of the Hall voltage tells us, whether the current is predominantly due to the drift of negative chrgers or to
the drift of positive chargers.

Fig. 6: Hall effect on a rectangular specimen. The polarity of the

Hall voltage indicated is for negative charge carriers.

Evaluation
Task 1:

Fig. 7 shows that, for both n-Germanium and p-Germanium, there is a linear relationship between the Hall voltage and the
control current :

where is the proportionality factor.

Since the charge carriers in n- and p-Germanium are different, the trend of the linear relationship between and is
reversed, as shown in Fig. 7 (a) and (b).

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(a) n-Germanium (b) p-Germanium

Fig. 7: Hall voltage as a function of the current with and .

Task 2:

The change in resistance of the sample due to the magnetic field is associated with a reduction in the mean free path of the
charge carriers. Since the current is constant during the measurement, the change of resistance is calculated as

where are resistance and voltage of the sample with the existence of a magentic field and are the resistance
and voltage of the sample when the magnetic filed .

Figs. 8 (a) and (b) show the non-linear change in resistance as the field strength increases for n- and p-Germanium, respectively.

(a) n-Germanium (b) p-Germanium

Fig. 8: Change of resistance as a function of the magnetic flux with and .

Task 3:

In the region of intrinsic conductivity, we have

where = conductivity, = energy of bandgap, = Boltzmann constant, = absolute temperature.

By taking the logarithm of both sides of the above equation, we get

If the logarithm of the conductivity is plotted against the reciprocal of the temperature , a linear relationship is obtained
with a slope from which can be determined. From the measured values shown in Fig. ??, the slopes of the regression lines are

with a standard deviation for n-Germanium, and

with a standard deviation for p-Germanium.

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Since , we get

for n-Germanium, and

for p-Germanium.

(a) n-Germanium

(b) p-Germanium

Fig. 9: Reciprocal sample voltage plotted as a function of reciprocal absolute temperature with
and no magnetic flux.

Task 4
With the directions of control current and magnetic field shown in Fig. 6, the charge carriers giving rise to the current in the
sample are deflected towards the front edge of the sample. Therefore, if (in an n-doped probe) electrons are the predominant
charge carriers, the front edge will become negative, and, with hole conduction in a p-doped sample, positive.
The conductivity , the chargecarrier mobility , and the charge carrier concentration are related through the Hall
constant :

Fig. 6 shows a linear connection between Hall voltage and magnetic field . With the values used in Fig. 10, the regression
line with the formula

has a slope with a standard deviation for p-Germanium, and with a

standard deviation for p-Germanium.

The Hall constant RH thus becomes, according to

where the sample thickness and ,

with the standard deviation

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for n-Germanium, and

with the standard deviation

for p-Germanium.

The conductivity at room temperature is calculated from the sample length , the sample cross-section and the sample
resistance as follows:

With the measured values

for n-Ge, for p-Ge,

we have

for n-Germanium, and

for p-Germanium.

The Hall mobility of the charge carriers can now be determined from

Using the measurements given above, we get

for n-Germanium, and

for p-Germanium.

The hole concentration of p-doped sample is calculated from

Using the value of the elementary charge

we obtain

The electron concentration of -doped specimen is given by

Taking elementary charge , we obtain

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(a) n-Germanium (b) p-Germanium

Fig. 10: Hall voltage as a function of magnetic flux with and .

Task 5:

Fig. 11 shows that the Hall voltage decreases with increasing temperatue for both n- and p-Germanium. Since the experment
was performed with a constant current, it can be assumed that the increase of charge carriers (transition from extrinsic to
intrinsic conduction) with the associated reduction of the drift velocity is responsible for this. (The same current for a higher
number of charge carriers means a lower drift velocity). The drift velocity is in turn related to the Hall voltage by the Lorentz
force.

(a) n-Germanium (b) p-Germanium

Fig. 11: Hall voltage as a function of the temperature with and .

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D - 37079 Göttingen Fax: +49 551 604 - 107 www.phywe.com