POTENTIAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE VAN DER PAUW TECHNIQUE

The van der Pauw technique for resistivity and Hall measurements is il lustrated on large-scale models of conductive polyethylene, which can be used to visualize the potential distribution in arbitrarily shaped two-dimensional samples. The equipotential lines in a square sample an d the dependence of measured voltages on the aspect ratio of these sam ples are studied. We give examples of the use of conformal mapping in two-dimensional conduction. (C) 1995 American Association of Physics T eachers.