Linear and quadratic magnetoresistance in the semimetal SiP2

Abstract: Multiple mechanisms for extremely large magnetoresistance (XMR) found in many topologically nontrivial/trivial semimetals have been theoretically proposed, but experimentally it is unclear which mechanism is responsible in a particular sample. In this article, by the combination of band structure calculations, numerical simulations of magnetoresistance (MR), Hall resistivity and de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) oscillation measurements, we studied the MR anisotropy of SiP$<em>{2}$ which is verified to be a topologically trivial, incomplete compensation semimetal. It was found that as magnetic field, $H$, is applied along the $a$ axis, the MR exhibits an unsaturated nearly linear $H$ dependence, which was argued to arise from incomplete carriers compensation. For the $H$ $\parallel$ [101] orientation, an unsaturated nearly quadratic $H$ dependence of MR up to 5.88 $\times$ 10$^{4}$\%$$ (at 1.8 K, 31.2 T) and field-induced up-turn behavior in resistivity were observed, which was suggested due to the existence of hole open orbits extending along the$$k{x}$ direction. Good agreement of the experimental results with the simulations based on the calculated Fermi surface (FS) indicates that the topology of FS plays an important role in its MR.