Abstract
The Hall conductivity of a two-dimensional metal in the weak-field, semiclassical, limit has a simple geometric representation. (normalized to /h, where e is the electron charge and h is Planck’s constant), is equal to twice the number of flux quanta threading the area , where is the total ‘‘Stokes’’ area swept out by the scattering path length l(k) as k circumscribes the Fermi surface (FS). From this perspective, many properties of become self-evident. The representation provides a powerful way to disentangle the distinct contributions of the three factors, FS area-to-circumference ratio, anisotropy in , and negative FS curvature. The analysis is applied to the Hall data on 2H- and the cuprate perovskites. Previous model calculations of are critically reexamined using the new representation.
- Received 2 July 1990
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.43.193
©1991 American Physical Society