670 Ch.

12 Quantum Hall Effect

12.1 Introduction
First, let us recall the simplest classical description of the Hall effect.
The schematic arrangement is shown in Fig. 12.1. A conductor is placed
in the external magnetic field H = (0, 0, H ) and we try to drive a current
in the z direction. A charge carrier with a velocity vz will be deflected
in the y direction by the Lorentz force. This leads to charge accumula-
tion at the y-boundaries of the system. The accumulated charge exerts
a Coulomb force on the electrons moving in the bulk. A stationary
state is reached when the Lorentz force is exactly compensated by the
electrostatic force E = (0, E , 0)
v,eH
-- eE=0, (12.1)
C
so that a uniform propagation in the x direction with the drift velocity
cE
vdrift = - (12.2)
H
becomes possible.

1"
+ + + Hall
+ field/- Ex

Figure 12.1: Schematic view of the measurement of the Hall current.

If the concentration of charge carriers is n, a Hall current jx =

-7Ie'Udrift will flow and the classical result for the Hall conductivity is

(12.3)

'In our discussion, we will call the positive quantities uym and psu the Hall con-
ductivity, and resistivity, respectively. The usual definition of the Hall conductivity
uzy= -nec/H gives a negative number for electron-like carriers.