The Hall effect and thermopower for expanded fluid mercury

Abstract

Abstract A discussion is given of the Hall effect and thermopower of fluid mercury at high temperatures and low densities. It is shown that the observed constant value of the Hall mobility over a certain density range follows from Friedman's treatment of charge transport at a mobility edge, and that this range is just on the ‘non-metal’ side of a metal—non-metal transition of Anderson type. Both Hall mobility and thermopower show that states at the Fermi energy become Anderson localized when [sgrave] ≃ 300 Ω−1 cm−1 (g = N(E F)/N(E F)free ≃ 0·35). The thermopower at low densities, for which mercury is a semiconductor, shows a negative heat of transport, for which a tentative model is suggested. The sudden drop in the thermopower observed by Duckers and Ross near the critical density is discussed.