Anomalous Hall effect in p-type Hg1−xCdxTe liquid-phase-epitaxial layers

This paper reports on the Hall characterization of narrow-gap p-type Hg1−xCdxTe epilayers grown by liquid-phase epitaxy. The characterization couples variable magnetic field (0.5–10 kG) and temperature (from 15 to 300 K) data with an analysis procedure which includes n-type conducting regions in the p-type material. It is shown that the analysis of the magnetic field dependence of the Hall coefficient is a useful tool to study the anomalous electrical properties in p-type Hg1−xCdxTe . The analysis, which is rather simple, yields consistent and meaningful results, and in some cases permits determination of the concentration of holes (in the p-type material) and electrons (in the n-type regions) and their mobilities. Although there is strong evidence that the n-type conducting regions are located at the surface of the Hg1−xCdxTe samples, the possibility that in some cases the n-type regions could be located within the material bulk or near the Hg1−xCdxTe substrate interface cannot be excluded.