Extremely large and anisotropic magnetoresistance in rare-earth tritelluride TbTe₃

The electrical transport properties of rare-earth tritelluride TbTe₃ are investigated at low temperatures and high magnetic fields. The charge-density-wave and anti-ferromagnetic transition are found at 334 K (340 K) and 6.0 K (9.4 K) for bulk TbTe₃ (thin device), respectively. An extremely large and non-saturating magnetoresistance (MR) as high as 5600% is detected under a perpendicular magnetic field at 1.8 K and 9 T. Furthermore, angular-dependent transport measurements reveal obvious anisotropic MR behaviors in both bulk TbTe₃ and thin devices. Moreover, in the thin TbTe₃ device, exotic linear MR at low temperatures is observed in all field directions. Hall measurements are also performed, and the quantitative fitting of the two-band model to longitudinal and Hall conductivity of the TbTe₃ device reveals two types of carriers (hole and electron). Our work may stimulate interests of layered rare-earth tritellurides in fundamental physics and potential technological applications.