Antilocalization in 3D tellurium and the role of intervalley scattering in the ‘frozen’ phonon mode

We report on an experimental study of magnetoresistance in single crystal Te at the hole concentration p 77 K = 1.2 × 1 0 17 cm − 3 in the temperature range of 75–300 mK, when inelastic scattering by photons no longer contributes significantly. It is found that negative magnetoresistance (NMR) in Te, known since 1948, changes its sign at these temperatures to transform to anomalous positive magnetoresistance (APMR). We interpret this effect in terms of quantum corrections to the conductivity of semiconductors with a strong spin-orbit interaction. The expression for the quantum correction to the conductivity in a weak localization of non-interacting particles, which was derived for 2D holes on Te surface, is extended to 3D conductivity in anisotropic Te crystals. A quantitative comparison with theory has shown that the anomalous behavior of Te magnetoresistance in classically low magnetic fields at low and superlow temperatures agrees with the predictions of quantum correction theory for this material.