Investigation of the Charge Carrier Scattering in Bi under High Hydrostatic Pressure

A detailed and precise measurement is given of the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of bismuth in the temperature range 2 K < T < 77 K. Under high hydrostatic pressure the Fermi energy is varied over a wide range. From the obtained temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity – a linear dependence for temperatures > 20 K and a T 2 dependence at lower temperatures – as well as the characteristic dependence of the strength of the linear and quadratic terms from the electron Fermi energy, it is suggested that at temperatures > 20 K the resistivity is dominated by electron–phonon scattering, however, at lower temperatures a contribution due to carrier–carrier scattering may be significant.