Extremely large and anisotropic magnetoresistance in rare-earth tritelluride TbTe3

Abstract

The electrical transport properties of rare-earth tritelluride TbTe3 are investigated at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. The charge-density-wave and anti-ferromagnetic transition are found at 334 K (340 K) and 6.0 K (9.4 K) for bulk TbTe3 (thin device), respectively. An extremely large and non-saturating magnetoresistance (MR) as high as 5600% is detected under a perpendicular magnetic field at 1.8 K and 9 T. Furthermore, angular-dependent transport measurements reveal obvious anisotropic MR behaviors in both bulk TbTe3 and thin devices. Moreover, in the thin TbTe3 device, exotic linear MR at low temperatures is observed in all field directions. Hall measurements are also performed, and the quantitative fitting of the two-band model to longitudinal and Hall conductivity of the TbTe3 device reveals two types of carriers (hole and electron). Our work may stimulate interests of layered rare-earth tritellurides in fundamental physics and potential technological applications.