Quantifying inhomogeneous magnetic fields at the micron scale using Graphene Hall-Effect sensors

Abstract

The response of a graphene Hall-Effect sensor to the inhomogeneous magnetic field generated by a dipole located above it, is investigated numerically at room temperature as a function of the dipole position, its orientation and the conduction regime of the sensor, i.e., diffusive or ballistic. By means of dedicated models, we highlight that the correction factor α frequently used to relate the Hall voltage to the magnetic field averaged over the sensor area can be greatly improved in the high proximity situation enabled by the use of graphene, particularly in the ballistic regime. In addition, it is demonstrated that by fine-tuning the dipole position in the sensor plane, the Hall response becomes highly selective with respect to the dipole orientation. These analyses show that diffusive graphene Hall sensors may be preferred for particle detection, while ballistic ones used as close as possible to a nanomagnet would be preferred for magnetometry. With the support of micromagnetic simulations, the principle of the magnetic hysteresis loop measurement of an isolated nanomagnet is quantitively demonstrated with large signal-to-noise ratio to probe incoherent magnetization reversal. Devices based on specially designed graphene Hall crosses operating in the ballistic regime promise to outperform state-of-the-art ballistic Hall sensors based on semiconductor quantum wells especially for nano-magnetometry.