Oscillatory Magnetoresistance in the Conduction Band of PbTe

Oscillatory behavior of the transverse magnetoresistance has been used to investigate the conduction band structure of PbTe. From the oscillatory periods, it is established that the minima in the conduction band consist of four equivalent 〈111〉 prolate ellipsoids with a mass anisotropy of approximately 5.5 and located at the Brillouin zone edge. The decay of the oscillation amplitudes with temperature yields a transverse ellipsoid mass of mT*=(0.030±0.005)m0. High field oscillations have been detected that point to the existence of a second band located at the center of the zone, having a mass of about 0.08 m0, and lying within ±0.002 ev of the ellipsoid minima. The phase of the oscillations suggests that spin splitting of the Landau levels may be quite large in PbTe.