Slow oscillations of in-plane magnetoresistance in strongly anisotropic quasi-two-dimensional rare-earth tritellurides

TL;DR

This paper reports the observation of slow in-plane magnetoresistance oscillations in rare-earth tritellurides, proposing their use to determine electronic structure parameters in strongly anisotropic quasi-two-dimensional materials.

Contribution

It introduces slow oscillations as a new method to estimate interlayer transfer integral in quasi-2D compounds, distinct from traditional Fermi surface measurements.

Findings

Oscillations originate from entangled close frequencies due to finite interlayer transfer integral.

Estimated interlayer transfer integral $t_z$ is approximately 1 meV for TbTe$_3$ and GdTe$_3$.

Proposes a novel technique for probing electronic structure in anisotropic layered materials.

Abstract

Slow oscillations of the in-plane magnetoresistance are observed in the rare-earth tritellurides and proposed as an effective tool to determine the parameters of electronic structure in various strongly anisotropic quasi-two-dimensional compounds. These oscillations do not originate from the small Fermi surface pockets, as revealed usually by the Shubnikov-de-Haas oscillations, but from the entanglement of close frequencies due to a finite interlayer transfer integral $t_z$, which allows to estimate its value. For TbTe$_3$ and GdTe$_3$ we obtain the estimate $t_z\approx 1$ meV.