Effect of spin-orbit coupling on the conduction-electron Zeeman splitting in platinum-group metals

Abstract

Local g factors, cyclotron effective masses, and cyclotron-orbit g factors (${g}_{c}$) for rhodium, palladium, iridium, and platinum have been calculated using a relativistic linear muffin-tin orbital method, including perturbation of a magnetic field. These calculations are compared with experimental results from de Haas--van Alphen measurements. Both measurements and calculations give an anisotropic ${g}_{c}$ factor for the \ensuremath{\Gamma}-centered electron sheet and the X pocket while they give a rather isotropic one for the \ensuremath{\alpha} orbit existing on the open-hole sheet. This indicates that the spin-orbit coupling is a major source of the anisotropic behavior of the ${g}_{c}$ factor in these metals.