Surface currents in Hall devices
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2020-08-26 v1
Abstract
A variational approach is used in order to study the stationary states of Hall devices. Charge accumulation, electric potentials and electric currents are investigated on the basis of the Kirchhoff-Helmholtz principle of least heat dissipation. A simple expression for the state of minimum power dissipated -- that corresponds to zero transverse current and harmonic chemical potential -- is derived. It is shown that a longitudinal surface current proportional to the charge accumulation is flowing near the edges of the device. Charge accumulation and surface currents define a boundary layer over a distance of the order of the Debye-Fermi length.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1908.06282,
title = {Surface currents in Hall devices},
author = {M. Creff and F. Faisant and J. M. Rubì and J. -E. Wegrowe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1908.06282},
year = {2020}
}
Comments
9 pages, 2 figures