Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Spin–orbit interactions

Hide and seek

Nature Physics volume 10, pages 333–334 (2014)Cite this article

Subjects

It is commonly believed that solids with spatial inversion symmetry do not display spin–orbit effects. However, first-principles calculations now reveal unexpected spin structure for centrosymmetric crystals.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: An electron with wavevector k = (kx, ky) moving in an electric field in a solid experiences an effective magnetic field that couples to its spin, an effect known as spin–orbit coupling.

References

  1. Zhang, X., Liu, Q., Luo, J.-W., Freeman, A. J. & Zunger, A. Nature Phys. 10, 387–393 (2014).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  2. Dresselhaus, G. Phys. Rev. 100, 580–586 (1955).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rashba, E. I. Sov. Phys. Solid State 2, 1109–1122 (1960).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Ishizaka, K. et al. Nature Mater. 10, 521–526 (2011).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Di Sante, D., Barone, P., Bertacco, R. & Picozzi, S. Adv. Mater. 25, 509–513 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bart Partoens is in the Department of Physics, University of Antwerp, Groenenborgerlaan 171, Antwerp, B-2020, Belgium

    Bart Partoens

Authors
  1. Bart Partoens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bart Partoens.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Partoens, B. Hide and seek. Nature Phys 10, 333–334 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2956

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2956

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing