Sign reversal of the Hall coefficient in amorphous Ni-Zr alloys

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the temperature and composition dependence of the Hall coefficient ${R}_{H}$ in amorphous ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Zr}}_{x}$ alloys. The weak temperature variation between 4 and 300 K is indicative of isotropic scattering in these alloys. There is, however, an abrupt but continuous crossover from negative to positive ${R}_{H}$ values with increasing $x$ near $x=0.6$. Comparison with the Hall coefficients found for CuZr alloys leads to the conclusion that the position and width of the $3d$ component density of states plays a central role in the crossover behavior.