What is Spin-orbit: Definition and 49 Discussions

In quantum physics, the spin–orbit interaction (also called spin–orbit effect or spin–orbit coupling) 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 relativistic effects: the apparent magnetic field seen from the electron perspective and the magnetic moment of the electron associated with its intrinsic spin. 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 nucleus 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 one cause of magnetocrystalline anisotropy and the spin Hall effect.
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.

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  1. Viona

    Spin-Orbit Coupling in Hydrogen Atom: Understanding the Calculation

    I was reading in the Book: Introduction to Quantum Mechanics by David J. Griffiths. In chapter Time-independent Perturbation Theory, Section: Spin -Orbit Coupling. I understood that the spin–orbit coupling in Hydrogen atom arises from the interaction between the electron’s spin magnetic moment...
  2. H

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  3. T

    Finding the spin-orbit coupling constants of an Alkai transition?

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  4. M

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  5. A

    Spin-orbit coupling for positronium

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  6. amjad-sh

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  7. B

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  8. K

    Eigenstates of Rashba Spin-Orbit Hamiltonian

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  9. H

    I Is there a simplified spin-orbit coupling equation?

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  10. Montserrat Crespo

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  11. C

    I What is the physical meaning "without spin-orbit interaction

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  12. M

    I Why is spin-orbit coupling neglected in Helium atom?

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  13. J

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  14. A

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  15. I

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  16. I

    Eigenvalues of a spin-orbit Hamiltonian

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  17. J

    Dual Lorentz force for classical spin-orbit interaction?

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  18. S

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  19. Ryan Reed

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  20. ShayanJ

    Spin-Orbit interaction in nucleus' rest frame

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  21. P

    Spin-orbit Interaction & Degenerate Perturbation Theory

    Hello! This is my first time posting, so please correct me if I have done anything incorrectly. There's something that I don't understand about the spin-orbit interaction. First of all I know that [\hat{S} \cdot \hat{L}, \hat{L_z}] \ne 0 [\hat{S} \cdot \hat{L}, \hat{S_z}] \ne 0 so this means...
  22. A

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  23. S

    Explaining Spin-Orbit Coupling: Energy Levels & Sub-Levels

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  24. S

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  25. T

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  26. B

    Understanding Spin-Orbit Interaction's Impact on Electron Energy Levels

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  27. Fightfish

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  28. K

    Derivation of Spin-orbit Coupling

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  29. H

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  30. alemsalem

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  31. C

    Explain Spin-Orbit Coupling for d Orbital l=2

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  32. W

    Spin-orbit interaction and bremsstrahlung

    Hi, It never occurred to me before, but when you derive the spin-orbit Hamiltonian as a perturbation to the hydrogen Hamiltonian, you imagine your electron orbiting around the nucleus, and of course that's not the correct picture because of the electromagnetic radiation that leaks out. So I...
  33. B

    How Does Spin-Orbit Coupling Affect Band Degeneracy in SrS?

    Hi. please help me. i really need a quick reply. I study the bandStructure of SrS with and without Spin-orbit but I have no enough information to explanation it. the Sr has([kr] 4s2 4p6 5s2) and S has([Ne] 3s2 3p4) Structure. I attache the bandStructure of this compound calculated using...
  34. N

    Origin in Inertial Frame for Spin-Orbit Coupling?

    Hello, I've seen spin orbit coupling being explained by going to the rest frame of the electron and noting that the proton is then a moving charge and hence has a magnetic field, which interacts with the spin of the electron, effectively coupling the spin and angular momentum of the electron...
  35. T

    Exploring Spin-Orbit Coupling in Hydrogen Atom

    Hey everyone, I've been reading about the Spin-Orbit coupling effect in the Hydrogen atom. However, there's something I don't quite understand. The effect is being explained and calculated like this: we move to the rest frame of the electron, in which the electron has no orbital angular...
  36. T

    Second quantization derivation of spin-orbit coupling.

    Can anyone recommend books/reviews that derives the spin-orbit coupling in second quantization. I am working on a tightbinding model and I should be able to convert the spin-orbit hamiltonian from k-space to atomic representation using Warnier states, but I can't figure out some of the aspects...
  37. soothsayer

    Energy splitting from spin-orbit interaction.

    Homework Statement The spin-orbit interaction splits the hydrogen 4f state into many (a) Identify these states and rank them in order of increasing energy. (b) If a weak external magnetic field were now introduced (weak enough that it does not disturb the spin-orbit coupling), into how many...
  38. S

    No Spin-Orbit Interaction Elements thru Ca: Explain

    Homework Statement List all of the elements through calcium that you would expect not to have a spin-orbit interaction that splits the ground state energy. Explain. Homework Equations Not quite sure, but I'll list a few. If there are two electrons: L=|l1-l2| to |l1+l2| S=|s1-s2| to...
  39. I

    Hydrogen spin-orbit interaction

    For a particular energy level in hydrogen, with quantum numbers n and l, one will find when considering the spin-orbit interaction, the level is split into two fine structure levels with energy separation: \Delta E_{s.o.}=\beta_{nl}(l+1/2) I was trying to prove this result. The spin of an...
  40. R

    Spin-orbit Hamiltonian in tight-binding

    Hi, In the usual tight-binding Hamiltonian for semiconductor materials, say GaAs, the basis in which the Hamiltonian matrix elements are specified are the atomic wavefunctions for each atom in the basis. So for GaAs, including just the valence wavefunctions 2s,2px,2py,2pz, we have 8 basis...
  41. S

    Naive picture of understanding Spin-Orbit Coupling

    I was trying to explain the origin of spin-orbit coupling to a beginning student and I used the following naive analogy: An electron orbiting around the nucleus "sees" the nucleus rotating about itself (the electron) in its own (electron's) reference frame, thus this is like a current loop...
  42. N

    QM: Spin-orbit and wavefunctions for H

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  43. W

    About the spin-orbit coupling in atoms

    i am now reading the book by woodgate: elementary atomic strucure, 2nd edition. on page 62, he discusses the spin-orbit coupling in hydrogen atom, and calculates the first order shift of the energy due to this effect. I have some doubt about his procedure from eq.4.25 to eq.4.27 the...
  44. A

    Quantum Physics, when is spin-orbit coupling necessary?

    When considering a simple hydrogen atom, which essentially is an electron moving in a spherical electric field, you don't need to take spin-orbit coupling into account. For larger atoms you do. I don't understand my books' very brief explanation of this. I am thinking that the electron has as...
  45. J

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  46. N

    Spin-orbit coupling perturbation

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  47. E

    Splitting and the spin-orbit interaction (e.g sodium-d lines)

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  48. G

    Spin-Orbit Effects: Calculating Effective Magnetic Field?

    Spin-orbit effects splits !? Hi AllL the spin-orbit effect splits the 3P-->3S transition in sodium(which gives rise to the yellow light of sodium vapor highway lamps) into two lines 589.0 nm corresponding to 3P sub 3/2-->3S sub 1/2 and 589.6nm corresponding to 3P sub 1/2 --> 3S sub 1/2. How...
  49. A

    Spin-Orbit Coupling: Positive & Negative Signs Explained

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