Piezo-Hall coefficients of n-type silicon

Abstract

The effect of uniaxial mechanical stress on the Hall coefficient of n-type silicon has been measured for various crystallographic orientations, and piezo-Hall coefficients P12 and P11-P44 have been derived for electron concentrations n between 1014 and 1016 cm−3 and temperatures ranging from −80 to +100 °C. In this range the piezo-Hall effect is found to be as important as the piezoresistance effect which is understood in terms of the many-valley band structure of silicon with anisotropic energy minima. For Hall plates in the (100) and the (110) plane of silicon the resulting longitudinal and transverse piezo-Hall coefficients at room temperature are plotted as a function of their orientation in the plane. It turns out that the piezo-Hall as well as the piezoresistance effects are minimized for a Hall plate in the (110) plane with the current flow roughly parallel to 〈11̄1〉.