Unconventional room-temperature negative magnetoresistance effect in Au/n-Ge:Sb/Au devices

Abstract

Non-magnetic semiconductor materials and their devices have attracted wide attention since they are usually prone to exhibit large positive magnetoresistance (MR) effect in a low static magnetic field environment at room temperature. However, how to obtain a large room-temperature negative MR effect in them remains to be studied. In this paper, by designing an Au/n-Ge:Sb/Au device with metal electrodes located on identical side, we observe an obvious room-temperature negative MR effect in a specific 50 T pulsed high magnetic field direction environment, but not in a static low magnetic field environment. Through the analysis of the experimental measurement of the Hall effect results and bipolar transport theory, we propose that this unconventional negative MR effect is mainly related to the charge accumulation on the surface of the device under the modulation of the stronger Lorentz force provided by the pulsed high magnetic field. This theoretical analytical model is further confirmed by regulating the geometry size of the device. Our work sheds light on the development of novel magnetic sensing, magnetic logic and other devices based on non-magnetic semiconductors operating in pulsed high magnetic field environment.