Linear Magnetoresistance in a Quasifree Two-Dimensional Electron Gas in an Ultrahigh Mobility GaAs Quantum Well

Abstract

We report a high-field magnetotransport study of an ultrahigh mobility (μ≈25×106 cm2 V-1 s-1) n-type GaAs quantum well. We observe a strikingly large linear magnetoresistance (LMR) up to 33 T with a magnitude of order 105% onto which quantum oscillations become superimposed in the quantum Hall regime at low temperature. LMR is very often invoked as evidence for exotic quasiparticles in new materials such as the topological semimetals, though its origin remains controversial. The observation of such a LMR in the "simplest system" - with a free electronlike band structure and a nearly defect-free environment - excludes most of the possible exotic explanations for the appearance of a LMR and rather points to density fluctuations as the primary origin of the phenomenon. Both, the featureless LMR at high T and the quantum oscillations at low T follow the empirical resistance rule which states that the longitudinal conductance is directly related to the derivative of the transversal (Hall) conductance multiplied by the magnetic field and a constant factor α that remains unchanged over the entire temperature range. Only at low temperatures, small deviations from this resistance rule are observed beyond ν=1 that likely originate from a different transport mechanism for the composite fermions.