Spin–orbit interaction


In quantum mechanics, the spin–orbit interaction is a relativistic interaction of a particle's spin with its motion inside a potential. A key example of this phenomenon is the spin–orbit interaction leading to shifts in an electron's atomic energy levels, due to electromagnetic interaction between the electron's magnetic dipole, its orbital motion, and the electrostatic field of the positively charged nucleus. This phenomenon is detectable as a splitting of spectral lines, which can be thought of as a Zeeman effect product of two effects: the apparent magnetic field seen from the electron perspective due to special relativity and the magnetic moment of the electron associated with its intrinsic spin due to quantum mechanics.
For atoms, energy level splitting produced by the spin–orbit interaction is usually of the same order in size as the relativistic corrections to the kinetic energy and the zitterbewegung effect. The addition of these three corrections is known as the fine structure. The interaction between the magnetic field created by the electron and the magnetic moment of the nucleus is a slighter correction to the energy levels known as the hyperfine structure.
A similar effect, due to the relationship between angular momentum and the strong nuclear force, occurs for protons and neutrons moving inside the nucleus, leading to a shift in their energy levels in the nuclear shell model. In the field of spintronics, spin–orbit effects for electrons in semiconductors and other materials are explored for technological applications. The spin–orbit interaction is at the origin of magnetocrystalline anisotropy and the spin Hall effect.
The interaction was first introduced by Llewellyn Thomas in 1926.

In atomic energy levels

This section presents a relatively simple and quantitative description of the spin–orbit interaction for an electron bound to a hydrogen-like atom, up to first order in perturbation theory, using some semiclassical electrodynamics and non-relativistic quantum mechanics. This gives results that agree reasonably well with observations.
A rigorous calculation of the same result would use relativistic quantum mechanics, using the Dirac equation, and would include many-body interactions. Achieving an even more precise result would involve calculating small corrections from quantum electrodynamics.

Energy of a magnetic moment

The energy of a magnetic moment in a magnetic field is given by
where is the magnetic moment of the particle, and is the magnetic field it experiences.

Magnetic field

We shall deal with the magnetic field first. Although in the rest frame of the nucleus, there is no magnetic field acting on the electron, there is one in the rest frame of the electron. Ignoring for now that this frame is not inertial, we end up with the equation
where is the velocity of the electron, and is the electric field it travels through. Here, in the non-relativistic limit, we assume that the Lorentz factor. Now we know that is radial, so we can rewrite.
Also we know that the momentum of the electron. Substituting these and changing the order of the cross product gives
Next, we express the electric field as the gradient of the electric potential. Here we make the central field approximation, that is, that the electrostatic potential is spherically symmetric, so is only a function of radius. This approximation is exact for hydrogen and hydrogen-like systems. Now we can say that
where is the potential energy of the electron in the central field, and is the elementary charge. Now we remember from classical mechanics that the angular momentum of a particle. Putting it all together, we get
It is important to note at this point that is a positive number multiplied by, meaning that the magnetic field is parallel to the orbital angular momentum of the particle, which is itself perpendicular to the particle's velocity.

Spin magnetic moment of the electron

The spin magnetic moment of the electron is
where is the spin vector, is the Bohr magneton, and is the electron-spin g-factor. Here is a negative constant multiplied by the spin, so the spin magnetic moment is antiparallel to the spin.
The spin–orbit potential consists of two parts. The Larmor part is connected to the interaction of the spin magnetic moment of the electron with the magnetic field of the nucleus in the co-moving frame of the electron. The second contribution is related to Thomas precession.

Larmor interaction energy

The Larmor interaction energy is
Substituting in this equation expressions for the spin magnetic moment and the magnetic field, one gets
Now we have to take into account Thomas precession correction for the electron's curved trajectory.

Thomas interaction energy

In 1926 Llewellyn Thomas relativistically recomputed the doublet separation in the fine structure of the atom. Thomas precession rate is related to the angular frequency of the orbital motion of a spinning particle as follows:
where is the Lorentz factor of the moving particle. The Hamiltonian producing the spin precession is given by
To the first order in, we obtain

Total interaction energy

The total spin–orbit potential in an external electrostatic potential takes the form
The net effect of Thomas precession is the reduction of the Larmor interaction energy by factor of about 1/2, which came to be known as the Thomas half.

Evaluating the energy shift

Thanks to all the above approximations, we can now evaluate the detailed energy shift in this model. Note that and are no longer conserved quantities. In particular, we wish to find a new basis that diagonalizes both and. To find out what basis this is, we first define the total angular momentum operator
Taking the dot product of this with itself, we get
, and therefore
It can be shown that the five operators,,,, and all commute with each other and with ΔH. Therefore, the basis we were looking for is the simultaneous eigenbasis of these five operators. Elements of this basis have the five quantum numbers: , , , , and .
To evaluate the energies, we note that
for hydrogenic wavefunctions ; and

Final energy shift

We can now say that
where the spin-orbit coupling constant is
For the exact relativistic result, see the solutions to the Dirac equation for a hydrogen-like atom.
The derivation above calculates the interaction energy in the rest frame of the electron and in this reference frame there's a magnetic field that's absent in the rest frame of the nucleus.
Another approach is to calculate it in the rest frame of the nucleus, see for example George P. Fisher: Electric Dipole Moment of a Moving Magnetic Dipole. However the rest frame calculation is sometimes avoided, because one has to account for hidden momentum.

Scattering

In solid state physics and particle physics, Mott scattering describes the scattering of electrons out of an impurity which includes the spin-orbit effects. It is analogous to the Coulomb scattering with the addition of spin-orbit coupling. In particle physics, it is due to relativistic corrections.

In solids

A crystalline solid is characterized by its band structure. While on the overall scale the spin–orbit interaction is still a small perturbation, it may play a relatively more important role if we zoom in to bands close to the Fermi level. The atomic interaction, for example, splits bands that would be otherwise degenerate, and the particular form of this spin–orbit splitting depends on the particular system. The bands of interest can be then described by various effective models, usually based on some perturbative approach. An example of how the atomic spin–orbit interaction influences the band structure of a crystal is explained in the article about Rashba and Dresselhaus interactions.
In crystalline solid contained paramagnetic ions, e.g. ions with unclosed d or f atomic subshell, localized electronic states exist. In this case, atomic-like electronic levels structure is shaped by intrinsic magnetic spin–orbit interactions and interactions with crystalline electric fields. Such structure is named the fine electronic structure. For rare-earth ions the spin–orbit interactions are much stronger than the crystal electric field interactions. The strong spin–orbit coupling makes J a relatively good quantum number, because the first excited multiplet is at least ~130 meV above the primary multiplet. The result is that filling it at room temperature is negligibly small. In this case, a -fold degenerated primary multiplet split by an external CEF can be treated as the basic contribution to the analysis of such systems' properties. In the case of approximate calculations for basis, to determine which is the primary multiplet, the Hund principles, known from atomic physics, are applied:
  • The ground state of the terms' structure has the maximal value allowed by the Pauli exclusion principle.
  • The ground state has a maximal allowed value, with maximal.
  • The primary multiplet has a corresponding when the shell is less than half full, and, where the fill is greater.
The, and of the ground multiplet are determined by Hund's rules. The ground multiplet is degenerated – its degeneracy is removed by CEF interactions and magnetic interactions. CEF interactions and magnetic interactions resemble, somehow, the Stark and the Zeeman effect known from atomic physics. The energies and eigenfunctions of the discrete fine electronic structure are obtained by diagonalization of the -dimensional matrix. The fine electronic structure can be directly detected by many different spectroscopic methods, including the inelastic neutron scattering experiments. The case of strong cubic CEF interactions form group of levels, which are partially split by spin–orbit interactions and lower-symmetry CEF interactions. The energies and eigenfunctions of the discrete fine electronic structure are obtained by diagonalization of the -dimensional matrix. At zero temperature only the lowest state is occupied. The magnetic moment at T = 0 K is equal to the moment of the ground state. It allows the evaluation of the total, spin and orbital moments. The eigenstates and corresponding eigenfunctions can be found from direct diagonalization of Hamiltonian matrix containing crystal field and spin–orbit interactions. Taking into consideration the thermal population of states, the thermal evolution of the single-ion properties of the compound is established. This technique is based on the equivalent operator theory defined as the CEF widened by thermodynamic and analytical calculations defined as the supplement of the CEF theory by including thermodynamic and analytical calculations.