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Classical and quantum routes to linear magnetoresistance

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 697–700 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

The hallmark of materials science is the ability to tailor the microstructure of a given material to provide a desired response. Carbon mixed with iron provides the steel of buildings and bridges; impurities sprinkled in silicon single crystals form the raw materials of the electronics revolution; pinning centres in superconductors let them become powerful magnets. Here, we show that either adding a few parts per million of the proper chemical impurities to indium antimonide, a well-known semiconductor, or redesigning the material’s structure on the micrometre scale, can transform its response to an applied magnetic field. The former approach is purely quantum mechanical1,2,3; the latter a classical outgrowth of disorder4,5,6,7, turned to advantage. In both cases, the magnetoresistive response—at the heart of magnetic sensor technology—can be converted to a simple, large and linear function of field that does not saturate. Harnessing the effects of disorder has the further advantage of extending the useful applications range of such a magnetic sensor to very high temperatures by circumventing the usual limitations imposed by phonon scattering.

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Figure 1: Doping InSb into the quantum regime.
Figure 2: Linear quantum magnetoresistance of single-crystal InSb.
Figure 3: Linear classical magnetoresistance in macroscopically inhomogeneous InSb.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank M. M. Parish for valuable discussions on the Parish–Littlewood model. The work at the University of Chicago was supported by DOE Basic Energy Sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The James Franck Institute and Department of Physics, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA

    Jingshi Hu & T. F. Rosenbaum

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  1. Jingshi Hu
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  2. T. F. Rosenbaum
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Contributions

J.H. and T.F.R. contributed equally to all parts of the project.

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Correspondence to T. F. Rosenbaum.

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Hu, J., Rosenbaum, T. Classical and quantum routes to linear magnetoresistance. Nature Mater 7, 697–700 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2259

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