Spin–orbit coupling and semiclassical electron dynamics in noncentrosymmetric metals

Abstract

Spin–orbit coupling of electrons with the crystal lattice plays a crucial role in materials without inversion symmetry, lifting spin degeneracy of the Bloch states and endowing the resulting nondegenerate bands with complex spin textures and topologically nontrivial wavefunctions. We present a detailed symmetry-based analysis of the spin–orbit coupling and the band degeneracies in noncentrosymmetric metals. We systematically derive the semiclassical equations of motion for fermionic quasiparticles near the Fermi surface, taking into account both the spin–orbit coupling and the Zeeman interaction with an applied magnetic field. Some of the lowest-order quantum corrections to the equations of motions can be expressed in terms of a fictitious “magnetic field” in the momentum space, which is related to the Berry curvature of the band wavefunctions. The band degeneracy points or lines serve as sources of a topologically nontrivial Berry curvature. We discuss the observable effects of the wavefunction topology, focusing, in particular, on the modifications to the Lifshitz–Onsager semiclassical quantization condition and the de Haas-van Alphen effect in noncentrosymmetric metals.