Magnetic field induced band depopulation in intrinsic InSb: A revisit

The effect of Landau level formation on the population of intrinsic electrons in InSb is probed near room temperature in magnetic fields upto 16 Tesla. Although the measured magnetic field dependence of the Hall coefficient is qualitatively similar to published results, it is shown that the data may also be explained by simply including ambipolar conduction. Thus the inference on band depopulation drawn from previous measurements on InSb is inconclusive unless both the Hall and the magnetoresistive components of the resistivity tensor are simultaneously measured and modelled. When the model includes both depopulation and ambipolar conduction, a reasonable agreement with theory can be established.