ISSN 1330–0008 CODEN FIZAE4 MAGNETIC PROPERTIES OF SINGLE CRYSTALS OF BISMUTH DOPED WITH GALLIUM AND INDIUM K. K. DEY a , D. BANERJEE b and R. BHATTACHARYA a, 1 a Department of Solid State Physics, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Kolkata-700 032, India b Department of Physics, B. E. College (D.U.), Howrah-711 103, India Received 2 April 2002; Accepted 20 January 2003 Online 7 February 2003 Diamagnetic susceptibility in single crystals of bismuth doped with gallium and indium has been measured as a function of temperature between 100 and 300 K. Susceptibility decreases with the increase of temperature for each of the samples and also with the increase of the percentage of impurity. An attempt has been made to explain properly the observed phenomena on the basis of the large diamagnetism exhibited by valence electrons. PACS numbers: 75.20.Ck UDC 537.622.2 Keywords: diamagnetic susceptibility, bismuth doped with indium and gallium, valence electrons 1. Introduction Bismuth, a group-V semimetal, has two overlapping bands. The magnetic property of bismuth has been a subject of interest due to the overlap. Impurities have a considerable influence on the magnetic properties of bismuth. Investigation on the properties of alloys of bismuth is important because various devices are being developed by using alloys of bismuth [1,2]. Several bismuth-containing oxides have been found to be high-T C superconducting material. Bismuth-antimony alloys have applications in Peltier cooling modules and in infrared detectors. Extensive investigations of the different transport properties of bismuth doped with impurities like lead, tin, tellurium, antimony etc. have been made [3-7]. Investigations with small percentages of impurity were carried out earlier in our laboratory. Reports on bismuth doped with higher percentages of acceptor impurities are scanty. The 1 E-mail address: sspkkd@mahendra.iacs.res.in FIZIKA A 11 (2002) 4, 153–162 153