Spin-orbit coupling: a recursion method approach

Relativistic effects play a significant role in alloys of the heavier elements. The majority of earlier works on alloys had included the scalar relativistic corrections. We present here a methodology to take into account the spin-orbit coupling using the recursion method. The basis used for the representation of the Hamiltonian is the TB-LMTO, since its sparseness is an essential requirement for recursion. The recursion technique can then be extended to augmented space to deal with disordered alloys or rough surfaces.