Magnetotransport properties of epitaxial (100)- and (111)-oriented CeSb thin films

Abstract We present the electronic magnetotransport properties of (1 0 0) - and (1 1 1) -oriented CeSb thin films. The samples were grown epitaxially by molecular beam epitaxy onto sapphire (1 1 2 0) and (0 0 0 1) substrates. The temperature-dependent resistivity is in full correspondence with the behaviour known from bulk material. For (1 0 0) -oriented films the analysis of the temperature and magnetic field-dependent magnetoresistivity results in a H / T phase diagram analogous to that of bulk samples. For (1 1 1) -oriented films slight deviations were observed. In Hall-effect measurements of (1 0 0) -oriented samples a sign change of the Hall coefficient occurred which is in contrast to measurements performed on single crystals. These deviations are interpreted in terms of a skew-scattering component resulting from an incoherent background of non-saturated magnetic moments.