Multifunctional semiconductor micro-Hall devices for magnetic, electric, and photo-detection

We report the real-space voltage response of InSb/AlInSb micro-Hall devices to local photo-excitation, electric, and magnetic fields at room temperature using scanning probe microscopy. We show that the ultrafast generation of localised photocarriers results in conductance perturbations analogous to those produced by local electric fields. Experimental results are in good agreement with tight-binding transport calculations in the diffusive regime. The magnetic, photo, and charge sensitivity of a 2 mu m wide probe are evaluated at a 10 mu A bias current in the Johnson noise limit (valid at measurement frequencies > 10 kHz) to be, respectively, 500 nT/root Hz; 20 pW/root Hz (lambda = 635 nm) comparable to commercial photoconductive detectors; and 0.05 e/root Hz comparable to that of single electron transistors. These results demonstrate the remarkably versatile sensing attributes of simple semiconductor micro-Hall devices that can be applied to a host of imaging and sensing applications. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.