Measurement of the Hall coefficient using van der Pauw method without magnetic field reversal

The van der Pauw geometry has been widely used for the measurement of resistivities and Hall coefficients. Although the measurement of a Hall coefficient requires a finite magnetic field, it should be noted that van der Pauw’s expression is valid only in the limit of zero field; in addition to the Hall contribution, measurements in a finite magnetic field generally include a term associated with field-induced changes in the longitudinal resistivity. Although a simple solution to this problem entails taking the difference between readings in opposite field directions, there are circumstances where this may be impractical. In this note we present a straightforward extension of the van der Pauw calculation which allows a determination of the Hall coefficient from quantities measured in one field direction only.