The Hall Effect in Liquid Metals

Abstract

The Hall effect in liquid metals is usually described by contrasting it with the effect in crystalline metals. In solid metals the Hall coefficient may be of either sign, and it is often temperature dependent. But upon melting the Hall coefficient becomes independent of temperature with a magnitude close to the classical value of $${\mathrm{R}_{\mathrm{H}}}^{\circ}=1/(\mathrm{nec})$$ (1) Here e = −|e| is the electronic charge and n is the number of conduction electrons per unit volume. At the time of the first review paper on electronic properties of liquid metals (Cusack, 1963) the experimental results were so few and uncertain that only this qualitative picture could be established.