The Infra-red Faraday Effect in Germanium

Abstract

Measurements of the infra-red Faraday effect have been made in n-type, p-type and intrinsic germanium. The Faraday rotations observed are interpreted as being due to free electrons in n-type germanium, valence to conduction band transitions in intrinsic germanium, and light and heavy holes and intervalence band transitions in p-type germanium. The rotations obtained for variously doped n-type specimens are used in conjunction with Hall effect measurements on the same specimens to evaluate the Hall scattering constant as a function of the impurity content. In p-type material the rotations obtained are used to estimate the relative population of the light and heavy hole states.