Magneto-resistance effects in the group I metals at high fields

Abstract

Measurements are reported on the resistivity and Hall coefficient of pure specimens of copper, silver and gold at 4°K in fields up to 25 kG. The theoretical form of the conductivity tensor in high fields is worked out, for arbitrary dependence of energy and relaxation time on wave-vector, and is found to be in qualitative disagreement with the experimental results. Possible causes of the discrepancy are discussed, and it is concluded that it probably arises not from quantization effects, but from the assumption in the theory that a relaxation time exists and is independent of field.