Sampling procedure for measuring Hall coefficients using the van der Pauw method

Abstract

It is shown that care must be exercised in using digital equipment when making Hall measurements in a van der Pauw setup employing the ASTM standard method. This arises because of quantization error when working near the sensitivity limit of the equipment. For materials with small Hall mobilities (<100 cm2/V s) this can lead to an incorrect specification of the carrier type and inconsistent mobility behavior. A simple averaging and sampling procedure is suggested to suppress this type of behavior and is found to be sufficient to obtain reliable and repeatable Hall voltages and coefficients.