Spin-zero anomaly in the magnetic quantum oscillations of a two-dimensional metal

We report on an anomalous behavior of the spin-splitting zeros in the de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) signal of a quasi-two-dimensional organic superconductor. The zeros as well as the angular dependence of the amplitude of the second harmonic deviate remarkably from the standard Lifshitz-Kosevich (LK) prediction. In contrast, the angular dependence of the fundamental dHvA amplitude as well as the spin-splitting zeros of the Shubnikov-de Haas signal follow the LK theory. We can explain this behavior by small chemical-potential oscillations and find a very good agreement between theory and experiment. A detailed wave-shape analysis of the dHvA signal corroborates the existence of an oscillating chemical potential

On the de Haas - van Alphen oscillations in quasi-two-dimensional metals: effect of the Fermi surface curvature

Here, we present the results of theoretical analysis of the de Haas-van Alphen oscillations in quasi-two-dimensional normal metals. We had been studying effects of the Fermi surface (FS) shape on these oscillations. It was shown that the effects could be revealed and well pronounced when the FS curvature becomes zero at cross-sections with extremal cross-sectional areas. In this case both shape and amplitude of the oscillations could be significantly changed. Also, we analyze the effect of the FS local geometry on the angular dependencies of the oscillation amplitudes when the magnetic field is tilted away from the FS symmetry axis by the angle $\theta.$ We show that a peak appears at $\theta \approx 0$ whose height could be of the same order as the maximum at the Yamaji angle. This peak emerges when the FS includes zero curvature cross-sections of extremal areas. Such maximum was observed in experiments on the $\alpha-(BETS)_4TIHg(SeCN)_4.$ The obtained results could be applied to organic metals and other quasi-two-dimensional compounds.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, text added, references adde