Hall effect

The Hall effect is the production of a potential difference, across an electrical conductor, that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. Such potential difference is known as the Hall voltage. It was discovered by Edwin Hall in 1879 through a study of the electromagnetic theory of James Clerk Maxwell, becoming a critical confirmation of that theory. The Hall coefficient is defined as the ratio of the induced electric field to the product of the current density and the applied magnetic field. It is a characteristic of the material from which the conductor is made, since its value depends on the type, number, and properties of the charge carriers that constitute the current.