MUON DEPOLARIZATION IN BISMUTH AT HIGH APPLIED FIELDS - POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF ELECTRON ORBITAL DIAMAGNETISM

The relaxation rate sigma was measured in single crystal Bi at T appro ximate to 3 K for H = 1-3 T. To explain the unsaturated increase of si gma with H, an electronic mechanism is proposed, based on the predicte d large scale fluctuations of the local field in the quantum limit, wi th all electrons in Landau orbitals with the lowest energy. This seems to be consistent also with earlier data on the orientation dependence of sigma at high fields.