Isothermal Hall effect studies in pulsed laser deposited Ni incorporated ZnO thin film

Abstract

We report isothermal Hall effect studies in pulsed laser deposited Ni0.07Zn0.93O thin film and shows that both electrons and holes coexist in this compound at different temperature regimes. Positive Hall resistivity with nonlinear slope has been observed at low temperature regimes (T ≤ 20 K), implying hole dominant conduction, whereas negative Hall resistivity with linear slope for high temperatures (T ≥50 K), reveals that the electrons are the majority charge carriers. Nonlinearity in slope of low temperature Hall resistivity agrees well with the two channel conduction model involving heavy and light hole subbands. Crossover in the sign of the slope of Hall resistivity suggests that temperature is an effective tool to monitor the type of charge carriers in this material.