Negative Hall coefficient in band conduction region in heavily Al-doped 4H-SiC

At low temperatures, the Hall coefficients in heavily Al-doped 4H-SiC are reported to be negative in the band conduction region as well as in the hopping conduction regions (i.e., nearest-neighbor hopping conduction region and variable-range hopping conduction region). A physical model was proposed to explain the negative sign of RH(T) in the hopping conduction regions. However, the negative value of RH(T) in the conduction band region remains unexplained. This study proposed a physical model to explain the negative value of RH(T) in the conduction band region. In addition to the valence band, doping copious amounts of Al acceptors in 4H-SiC causes a strong overlap of the wave functions of the excited states of Al acceptors, which results in the formation of allowed bands, referred to as allowed minibands. Although the holes can flow freely through the valence band as well as the allowed minibands, the energy–momentum relationship in the valence band and the allowed minibands determines the sign of RH(T). As elucidated here, if the holes flow primarily in the lower parts of the allowed minibands, the RH(T) in the band conduction region becomes negative, whereas if the holes flow primarily in the upper parts of the allowed minibands and the valence band, the RH(T) becomes positive.