Eur. Phys. J. B (2012) 85: 183
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2012-30024-4

Regular Article

Scissors modes and spin-orbit locking in rare earth crystals with uniaxial symmetry

¹ INFN Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, c.p. 13, 00044 Frascati, Italy
² Équipe de Physique des Surfaces et Interfaces, Institut de Physique de Rennes, UMR UR1-CNRS 6251, Campus de Beaulieu, Université de Rennes 1, 35042 Rennes Cedex, France
³ Centro Fermi, Compendio Viminale, 00184 Roma, Italy

^a e-mail: fabrizio.palumbo@lnf.infn.it

Received: 9 January 2012
Received in final form: 13 March 2012
Published online: 4 June 2012

Abstract

We propose a new type of experiment to observe scissors modes in crystals. These experiments are based on the assumption that in systems in which the spin-orbit coupling is much larger than the crystal field, an applied magnetic field should rotate both spin and charge density profile (spin-orbit locking). Rare earth compounds should provide examples of spin-orbit locking, since their 4f electrons have standard values of the crystal field energies one order of magnitude smaller than the spin-orbit coupling. Such standard values, however, have been questioned by a recent experiment suggesting that crystal field and spin-orbit coupling should be comparable in rare earths. Our experiments should also help to settle this issue.