Validation of galvanomagnetic and thermomagnetic transport measurements using Standard Reference Material 3451.

Abstract

In the "method of four coefficients," electrical resistivity (ρ), Seebeck coefficient (S), Hall coefficient (RH), and Nernst coefficient (Q) of a material are measured and typically fit or modeled with theoretical expressions based on Boltzmann transport theory to glean experimental insights into features of electronic structure and/or charge carrier scattering mechanisms in materials. Although well-defined and readily available reference materials exist for validating measurements of ρ and S, none currently exists for RH or Q. We show that measurements of all four transport coefficients-ρ, S, RH, and Q-can be validated using a single reference sample, namely, the low-temperature Seebeck coefficient Standard Reference Material® (SRM) 3451 (composition Bi2Te3+x) available from the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) without the need for inter-laboratory sample exchange. RH and Q data for NIST SRM 3451 reported here for the temperature range 80-400 K complement the data already available for ρ and S and will therefore be of interest to researchers desiring to validate new or existing galvanomagnetic and thermomagnetic transport properties measurement systems.