Effect of nonparabolicity on transverse magnetoresistance of semiconductors in strong magnetic fields

Abstract

The effect of nonparabolic band structure on the transverse magnetoresistance in a semiconductor such as $n$-type InSb in the presence of a dc magnetic field is studied taking into account the inelasticities in the electron-phonon scattering. We discuss this effect of nonparabolicity in semiconductors for both deformation-potential coupling and piezoelectric coupling to acoustic phonons. Results show that the numerical values of the transverse magnetoresistance for the case of the piezoelectric coupling are much smaller than those for the case of the deformation-potential coupling. Therefore, the deformation-potential coupling mechanism plays the dominant role for the transverse magnetoresistance in strong magnetic fields in $n$-type InSb. We also found that the nonparabolicity of the energy-band structure will change the effect of the temperature on the transverse magnetoresistance besides the enhancement of its magnitude. Our numerical results are found to be in qualitative agreement with experimental results in the quantum limit.