Location of the Valence-Band Maximum in Bismuth

We note that recent experimental results on the activation energy of electron-hole recombination in bismuth, when combined with recent measurements of the phonon dispersion spectrum, yield the relative separation in momentum space of the valence and conduction band extrema. If we accept the strong experimental and theoretical evidence that the conduction-band minima are at the centers of the pseudohexagonal faces of the Brillouin zone (symmetry points L), our results then indicate that the maximum of the valence band is at the center of the hexagonal face of the Brillouin zone (symmetry point T).