Comparative study of magnetic quantum oscillations in Hall and transverse magnetoresistance

Magnetic quantum oscillations (MQO) provide a common tool to probe the electronic structure of various conductors. The Fermi surface of most metals is now known due to the MQO. This tool is more precise than its alternatives, but requires low temperatures, clean samples and rather strong magnetic fields. In this paper the MQO of Hall coefficient are measured in rare-earth tritelluride TmTe3 and shown to be much stronger and persist to higher temperature than the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. This amplitude enhancement simplifies the MQO experiments and is very general in strongly anisotropic metals. The combined measurements of Hall and diagonal magnetoresistance provide additional useful information. The ratio of their MQO amplitudes depends linearly on magnetic field, and its slope gives a simple and accurate measurement tool of the electron mean free time and its temperature dependence, unachievable from the usual Dingle plot. Our results expand the use and applications of MQO as a powerful tool to investigate the electronic structure.