Article
Article
Corbino disk
Article By:
Herbst, Jan F. Physics Department, General Motors Research Laboratories, Warren, Michigan.
Last reviewed:January 2020
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.161800
A conducting disk with concentric inner and outer electrical contacts, which can be placed in a magnetic field parallel to its axis. The disk is named after O. M. Corbino, who in 1911 reported magnetoresistance measurements on several metals by using this configuration. In zero applied field the lines of current are simply radial (illus.a), but in the presence of an axial magnetic field they lengthen by spiraling (illus.b). This spiraling occurs because the geometry of the disk is such that the Lorentz force acting on the charge carriers is not counterbalanced by a Hall-effect electric field. The resistance of the disk increases as the field increases, largely as a result of the geometrical magnetoresistance effect associated with the lengthening of the current path.
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