Studies of spin-orbit scattering in noble-metal nanoparticles using energy-level tunneling spectroscopy.

The effects of spin-orbit scattering on discrete electronic energy levels are studied in copper, silver, and gold nanoparticles. Level-to-level fluctuations of the effective g-factor for Zeeman splitting are characterized, and the statistics are found to be well described by random matrix theory predictions. The strength of spin-orbit scattering increases with atomic number and also varies between nanoparticles made of the same metal. We compare the spin-orbit scattering rates in the nanoparticles to weak-localization measurements on larger samples.