Weak- and strong-field magnetoresistance in (111)-oriented n-type PbTe epitaxial films between 1.8 and 300 K

Magnetoresistance measurements on epitaxial PbTe, covering a wide range of temperatures and magnetic field intensities, are reported. Nearly all of the results exhibit a common behavior which depends only on μHB, the product of the Hall mobility and magnetic field. The usual quadratic weak-field dependence is followed by a tendency towards saturation near μHB = 1, and by a linear range for μHB = 10–300. The relevance of sample inhomogeneities, boundary effects, and quantum-limit magnetoresistance theories is considered. None of these factors seems capable of explaining the general insensitivity of the results to temperature, scattering mechanisms, and sample profile.