New insights on frequency combinations and 'forbidden frequencies' in the de Haas-van Alphen spectrum of κ-(ET)Cu(SCN).

de Haas-van Alphen oscillations of the organic metal κ-(ET)Cu(SCN) have been measured up to 55 T at liquid helium temperatures. The Fermi surface of this charge transfer salt is a textbook example of a linear chain of orbits coupled by magnetic breakdown. Accordingly, the oscillation spectrum is composed of linear combinations of the frequencies linked to the α and magnetic breakdown-induced β orbits. The field and temperature dependence of all the observed Fourier components, in particular the 'forbidden frequency' [Formula: see text] which cannot correspond to a classical orbit, are quantitatively accounted for by analytical calculations based on a second order development of the free energy, i.e. beyond the first order Lifshitz-Kosevich formula.