Linear magnetoresistance without linear dispersions: The case of homogeneous silver deficient Ag2-δTe

We reproducibly vary the room temperature magnetoresistance (MR) of homogeneous, single-phase, polycrystalline silver telluride samples by precisely altering silver deficit with electrochemical doping. Deficit-tuned MR behaviors observed in fields typical of laboratory solenoids include sub-linearity, pure linearity, and MR(B) = α|B| + γB2, but higher field measurements reveal an MR saturation incongruous with linear dispersion-based MR models, and possibly suggestive of an alternate classical explanation involving three populations of carriers.