Recent from talks
Hall effect
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Hall effect
The Hall effect is the production of a potential difference, across an electrical conductor, that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. Such potential difference is known as the Hall voltage. It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879.
The Hall coefficient is defined as the ratio of the induced electric field to the product of the current density and the applied magnetic field. It is a characteristic of the material from which the conductor is made, since its value depends on the type, number, and properties of the charge carriers that constitute the current.
Wires carrying current in a magnetic field experience a mechanical force perpendicular to both the current and magnetic field.
In the 1820s, André-Marie Ampère observed this underlying mechanism that led to the discovery of the Hall effect. However it was not until a solid mathematical basis for electromagnetism was systematized by James Clerk Maxwell's "On Physical Lines of Force" (published in 1861–1862) that details of the interaction between magnets and electric current could be understood.
Edwin Hall then explored the question of whether magnetic fields interacted with the conductors or the electric current, and reasoned that if the force was specifically acting on the current, it should crowd current to one side of the wire, producing a small measurable voltage. In 1879, he discovered this Hall effect while he was working on his doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Eighteen years before the electron was discovered, his measurements of the tiny effect produced in the apparatus he used were an experimental tour de force, published under the name "On a New Action of the Magnet on Electric Currents".
The Hall effect is due to the nature of the current in a conductor. Current consists of the movement of many small charge carriers, typically electrons, holes, ions (see Electromigration) or all three. When a magnetic field is present, these charges experience a force, called the Lorentz force. When such a magnetic field is absent, the charges follow approximately straight paths between collisions with impurities, phonons, etc. However, when a magnetic field with a perpendicular component is applied, their paths between collisions are curved; thus, moving charges accumulate on one face of the material. This leaves equal and opposite charges exposed on the other face, where there is a scarcity of mobile charges. The result is an asymmetric distribution of charge density across the Hall element, arising from a force that is perpendicular to both the straight path and the applied magnetic field. The separation of charge establishes an electric field that opposes the migration of further charge, so a steady electric potential is established for as long as the charge is flowing.
In classical electromagnetism, electrons move in the opposite direction of the current I (by convention "current" describes a theoretical "hole flow"). In some metals and semiconductors it appears "holes" are actually flowing because the direction of the voltage is opposite to the derivation below.
For a simple metal where there is only one type of charge carrier (electrons), the Hall voltage VH can be derived by using the Lorentz force and seeing that, in the steady-state condition, charges are not moving in the y-axis direction. Thus, the magnetic force on each electron in the y-axis direction is cancelled by a y-axis electrical force due to the buildup of charges. The vx term is the drift velocity of the current which is assumed at this point to be holes by convention. The vxBz term is negative in the y-axis direction by the right hand rule.
Hub AI
Hall effect AI simulator
(@Hall effect_simulator)
Hall effect
The Hall effect is the production of a potential difference, across an electrical conductor, that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. Such potential difference is known as the Hall voltage. It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879.
The Hall coefficient is defined as the ratio of the induced electric field to the product of the current density and the applied magnetic field. It is a characteristic of the material from which the conductor is made, since its value depends on the type, number, and properties of the charge carriers that constitute the current.
Wires carrying current in a magnetic field experience a mechanical force perpendicular to both the current and magnetic field.
In the 1820s, André-Marie Ampère observed this underlying mechanism that led to the discovery of the Hall effect. However it was not until a solid mathematical basis for electromagnetism was systematized by James Clerk Maxwell's "On Physical Lines of Force" (published in 1861–1862) that details of the interaction between magnets and electric current could be understood.
Edwin Hall then explored the question of whether magnetic fields interacted with the conductors or the electric current, and reasoned that if the force was specifically acting on the current, it should crowd current to one side of the wire, producing a small measurable voltage. In 1879, he discovered this Hall effect while he was working on his doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland. Eighteen years before the electron was discovered, his measurements of the tiny effect produced in the apparatus he used were an experimental tour de force, published under the name "On a New Action of the Magnet on Electric Currents".
The Hall effect is due to the nature of the current in a conductor. Current consists of the movement of many small charge carriers, typically electrons, holes, ions (see Electromigration) or all three. When a magnetic field is present, these charges experience a force, called the Lorentz force. When such a magnetic field is absent, the charges follow approximately straight paths between collisions with impurities, phonons, etc. However, when a magnetic field with a perpendicular component is applied, their paths between collisions are curved; thus, moving charges accumulate on one face of the material. This leaves equal and opposite charges exposed on the other face, where there is a scarcity of mobile charges. The result is an asymmetric distribution of charge density across the Hall element, arising from a force that is perpendicular to both the straight path and the applied magnetic field. The separation of charge establishes an electric field that opposes the migration of further charge, so a steady electric potential is established for as long as the charge is flowing.
In classical electromagnetism, electrons move in the opposite direction of the current I (by convention "current" describes a theoretical "hole flow"). In some metals and semiconductors it appears "holes" are actually flowing because the direction of the voltage is opposite to the derivation below.
For a simple metal where there is only one type of charge carrier (electrons), the Hall voltage VH can be derived by using the Lorentz force and seeing that, in the steady-state condition, charges are not moving in the y-axis direction. Thus, the magnetic force on each electron in the y-axis direction is cancelled by a y-axis electrical force due to the buildup of charges. The vx term is the drift velocity of the current which is assumed at this point to be holes by convention. The vxBz term is negative in the y-axis direction by the right hand rule.
Recent media