The effect of spin-orbit splitting on the valence band density of states of lead

Tight-binding calculations are reported for the valence bands of lead, with and without spin-orbit splitting in the 6p bands. The addition of spin-orbit interaction is necessary to reproduce the two-peaked structure in the 6p density of states observed in X-ray photoemission, in contrast to the assertion by Breeze that crystal-field effects alone are enough. The observed splitting is, however, only fortuitously nearly equal to the atomic spin-orbit splitting. The tight-binding band structure, with spin-orbit splitting, gives better overall agreement with optical, Fermi surface, and photoemission data than did any of the three earlier band structures.