Hall Effect : Lab.

Report writing Manual

f an electric current flows through a conductor in a magnetic field, the magnetic field
exerts a transverse force on the moving charge carriers which tends to push them to
one side of the conductor. This is most evident in a thin flat conductor as illustrated. A
buildup of charge at the sides of the conductors will balance this magnetic influence,
producing a measurable voltage between the two sides of the conductor. The presence
of this measurable transverse voltage is called the Hall effect after E. H. Hall who
discovered it in 1879.
Note that the direction of the current I in the diagram is that of conventional current,
so that the motion of electrons is in the opposite direction. That further confuses all
the "right-hand rule" manipulations you have to go through to get the direction of the
forces.

The Hall
voltage is
given by

VH = Sho
IB/ne w
d

where n =
density of
mobile charges
and e =
electron
charge.

The Hall effect

can be used to
measure
magnetic fields
with a Hall
probe.

Hall Probe
The measurement of large magnetic fields on the order of a Tesla is
often done by making use of the Hall effect. A thin film Hall probe is
placed in the magnetic field and the transverse voltage (on the order of
microvolts) is measured.
Sometimes a thin copper film of
thickness d on the order of 100
micrometers is used for a Hall
probe. Taking the charge carrier
density to be

Sho
n=8.47x1028 electrons/m
3 w

For I = amperes
magnetic field B = Tesla
and d = x10^
meters.
The Hall voltage is
VH = IB/ned =
x10^ volts.
 Microscopic Electric Current
Since electric charge is quantized in discrete multiples of the electron charge, it is
instructive to look at electric current as the movement of multiple microscopic charge
carriers with a drift velocity in a conductor.

Electric Charge Carriers

For electric current in a copper wire, the charge carriers are the mobile electrons and
the positively charged copper ions are essentially stationary in the metal lattice.
Nevertheless, treatments of electric circuits usually use conventional current, as if
positive charges were moving. Debate continues about this practice, but the physical
nature of the charge carriers in copper is fairly straightforward.

In other applications of electric current however, the identification of the charge

carriers is not so simple. In semiconductors, for example, you sometimes have
electrons which are mobile, and sometimes have deficiencies of electrons, called
"holes" which are mobile. There are significant differences in the way they conduct.
One way to detect which kind of conduction is taking place is with the Hall effect,
which gives a different polarity for the Hall voltage for positive and negative charge
carriers. In many substances, electric conduction is not just free electron movement.

Drift Velocity of Charge Carriers

Although your light turns on very quickly when you flip the switch, and you find it
impossible to flip off the light and get in bed before the room goes dark, the actual
drift velocity of electrons through copper wires is very slow. It is the change or
"signal" which propagates along wires at essentially the speed of light.

The drift velocity of electrons in a copper wire can be calculated from

Show Show

If the wire diameter is mm then the area is A = x10^ m2.

For current I = amperes,

the drift velocity is Vd = x10^ m/s = cm/hour.

This slow average drift speed for electrons is tiny compared to the average electron
speed associated with its internal energy.

Calculation note: Any of the properties of the wire can be changed. Parameters left
unspecified default to values for a 12 gauge copper wire carrying 10 amperes.

Density of Charge Carriers

Calculation of the density of free electrons in a metal like copper involves the basic
physical data about the metal, plus the fact that copper provides about one free
electron per atom to the electrical conduction process. A representative value can be
calculated with the following data.

Hall Voltage for Positive Charge Carriers

The transverse voltage (Hall effect) measured in a Hall probe has its origin in
the magnetic force on a moving charge carrier.
The magnetic force is Fm = evdB where vd is the drift velocity of the charge.

The current expressed in terms

of the drift velocity is

Show
I = neAvd

where n is the density of charge

carriers. Then

Fm = eIB/neA

At equilibrium

Show
Fm =Fe=VHe/W

And substituting gives

VH = IB/ned