Oscillatory Magnetoresistance in Mercuric Selenide

The oscillatory magnetoresistance (Shubnikov-de Haas effect) in oriented single crystals of mercuric selenide was measured at 1.2 and 4.2°K and in transverse magnetic fields up to 25 kG. Analysis of the periods of the oscillations for the magnetic field aligned with $〈110〉$, $〈111〉$, and $〈100〉$ crystallographic directions showed that the Fermi surface for conduction electrons in HgSe, although nearly spherical, has slight bulges in the $〈111〉$ directions of k space. From the temperature dependence of the amplitudes of the oscillations, it was determined that the cyclotron effective masses of conduction electrons at the Fermi surface ranged from 0.033 to 0.068 $m_e$ for samples having from 1.86×${10}^{17}$ to 4.52×${10}^{18}$ electrons/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$. This variation of effective mass with electron concentration is consistent with the nonparabolic conduction-band model developed for compounds that have the zincblende crystal structure. The band parameters derived are $p=7.1\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-8\mathrm{}}$ eV cm and $E_G=0.24\mathrm{}$ eV, where $P$ is an interband momentum matrix element and $E_G$ is the band gap at k=0; these values are in fair agreement with parameters deduced from reflectivity data by other investigators.