Electric properties of black arsenic

Abstract

R(T, B) of the natural black arsenic (b-As) polycrystal was studied. It was shown that the polycrystalline b-As sample contains the b-As phase and also the traces of its oxide, as well as grey arsenic and arsenolite (As2O3). The behavior of the relative magnetoresistance of the b-As crystal was described by the relation MR(B) = bBn + cBm, where the coefficients b and c and the exponents n and m were also affected by the mechanisms of magnetoresistance formation and temperature. At the temperatures below 10 K, MR(B) shows the presence of a competition between negative (with b < 0 and n ≈ 0.5) and positive (with c > 0 and m ≈ 1) contributions. Above 10 K, only the PMR effect was presented. For the PMR effect, at 10 < T < 100 K it is observed that the values of b > 0, n ≈ 1 and c → 0. Above 100 K, it is observed that the values of b, c > 0 and n ≈ 1 and 1.30 < m < 1.47. The observed behavior of the R(T, B) dependences is associated with strong inhomogeneity and/or disorder of the investigated black arsenic crystal.