Magnetic properties of NiO are investigated by incorporating the spin-orbit interaction in the LSDA+U scheme. It is found that the large part of orbital moment remains unquenched in NiO. The orbital moment contributes about mu_L = 0.29 mu_B to the total magnetic moment of M = 1.93 mu_B, as leads to the orbital-to-spin angular momentum ratio of L/S = 0.36. The theoretical values are in good agreement with recent magnetic X-ray scattering measurements.
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0003371,
title = {Unquenched large orbital magnetic moment in NiO},
author = {S. K. Kwon and B. I. Min},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0003371},
year = {2009}
}