HALL COEFFICIENT OF DILUTE ALLOYS OF COPPER AND SILVER

The Hall coefficient of a number of dilute alloys of copper and silver has been measured between room temperature and 1·5°K. The alloys were CuAu and AgAu (uncharged impurity); CuGe, CuZn and AgSn (charged impurity); and CuNi and AgPd (transition metal impurity). The different values of the Hall coefficient due to different impurities have been interpreted as arising from different anisotropies of relaxation time of the conduction electrons. By means of a two-band model the experimental data have been extrapolated to obtain the characteristic Hall coefficients for copper and silver containing different solutes as follows: CuAu, -3·3; CuGe, -7·3; CuNi, -6·0; AgAu, -7·4; AgSn, -9·8; AgPd, -7·7 10-11 m 3 c-1. The Hall coefficient has been numerically estimated for copper and silver by assuming isotropic scattering. The results agree with the measured values for the pure metals at room temperature within the error involved. This indicates isotropic scattering by phonons at these temperatures.