Influence of Small-Angle Intersheet Scattering on the Galvanomagnetic Properties of Polyvalent Metals: Application to Cadmium

Abstract

The influence of small-angle scattering between different sheets of Fermi surface on the galvanomagnetic properties of metals is calculated using an idealized Fermi surface. The effects of the small-angle scattering are included explicitly in the solution of the Boltzmann equation. The theoretical results are applied to experimental measurements of the transverse magnetoresistance and Hall resistivity of cadmium and Cd-Zn alloys with the magnetic field parallel to the [0001] direction. Excellent agreement is obtained for the observed properties of the Hall resistivity as well as the magnetoresistance. The agreement between theory and experiment indicates the inadequacy of using only a relaxation-time approximation in dealing with the transport properties of these metals.