In Situ Electrical Resistivity and Hall Effect Measurement of β-HgS under High Pressure

With in situ electrical resistivity and Hall effect measurement, the transport properties and carrier behavior of β-HgS under high pressure are investigated up to 32.9 GPa. The electrical resistivity changes discontinuously at 5.4, 14.6, and 25.0 GPa. These discontinuities correspond to the phase transitions of β-HgS from zinc blende to cinnabar, then to rock salt structure. For the zinc blende structure, the decrease of carrier concentration and the increase of mobility indicate that the originally overlapped valence band and conduction band separate with pressure. For the rock salt phase, the increase of ionized impurity concentration leads to the decrease of mobility with pressure.