Diffusion size effect in the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation of antimony

Transverse magnetoresistance of pure antimony was measured at 1.2 K in magnetic fields up to 9 T in order to investigate the sample size dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) effect as well as the nonoscillatory magnetoresistance. It was found that the nonoscillatory part of the magnetoresistance rho(xx) decreased in magnitude with decreasing sample size. Also, a marked sample size dependence of the SdH oscillation amplitude was observed. The electron-hole recombination time tau(eh) was obtained by two different ways, that is, it was calculated from the result of the sample size dependence of the nonoscillatory pal? rho(xx) and from that of the SdH oscillation amplitude. The obtained values of tau(eh) were 3.3 x 10(-10) s from nonoscillatory part of rho(xx), and 2.5 x 10(-10) s from the SdH oscillation amplitude. Those values were in good agreement with each other and were two orders of magnitude smaller than that of bismuth, 1.5 x 10(-8) s.