Quantum magnetoresistance

An explanation is proposed of the unusual magnetoresistance, linear in magnetic field and positive, observed recently in nonstoichiometric silver chalcogenides. The idea is based on the assumption that these substances are basically gapless semiconductors with a linear energy spectrum. Most of the excess silver atoms form metallic clusters which are doping the remaining material to a very small carrier concentration, so that even in a magnetic field as low as 10 Oe, only one Landau band participates in the conductivity.