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The de Haas-Van Alphen Effect in Antimony-Tin Alloys

<p> The de Haas-van Alphen effect has been used to measure the Fermi surface areas, cyclotron masses and Dingle temperatures in antimony and its alloys containing less than 0.3 percent tin. The Fermi surface of each alloy was similar to the pure antimony surface. However the hole surface increased in size and the electron surface shrunk since tin removes electrons from the alloy. The cyclotron masses increased and decreased for holes and electrons respectively, giving a definite indication of nonparabolic conduction and valence bands. The cyclotron masses were found from the temperature dependence of the dHvA amplitude after interfering dHvA frequency components were removed by a Fourier analysis technique. The Dingle temperature increased roughly linearily with tin concentration.</p> <p> A comparison of the hole and electron Fermi surface volumes with the number of tin atoms added to the alloys shows that one tin atom removes one electron from the alloy as expected from the unit valence difference between antimony and tin. This value is higher than that found by other workers using different techniques.</p> <p> The shapes of the energy bands along with the cyclotron masses have been compared with several band models. An ellipsoidal band provides a rough overall description of both holes and electrons while an ellipsoidal nonparabolic band describes the mass behaviour on alloying more accurately. A pseudopotential band calculated using the method and potential of Falicov and Lin (1967) was also compared with the data.</p> <p> The observed relative frequency changes were used to compare the data with the rigid band model of alloying. The bands are rigid for low concentrations. At higher concentrations there are deviations apparently caused by the cyclotron mass change and an axial ratio change in the hole Fermi surface.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/17639
Date09 1900
CreatorsDunsworth, Allen Edward
ContributorsDatars, W.R., Physics
Source SetsMcMaster University
Languageen_US
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis

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