Influence of Anisotropic Scattering on the Transverse Magnetoresistance of an Undulating Cylinder: Application to Cadmium

Abstract

The Chambers path-integral method is used to solve the Boltzmann equation for a Fermi surface consisting of a holelike undulating cylinder and a compensating spherical electron sheet. It is assumed that there exists an increased probability of scattering for hole states that lie on and near the bulges of the undulating cylinder. This increased scattering probability is assumed to be temperature-dependent. It is found that the anisotropic scattering probability gives rise to a temperature-dependent anisotropic variation of the high-field transverse magnetoresistance as the angle between the magnetic field H and the cylinder axis is varied. This anisotropic variation, within the geometrical limitations of the model, is found to be in good agreement with the anisotropy experimentally observed in cadmium by Tsui and Stark.