ABSTRACT:Off-center impurity ions in solids often perform rotations around their regular lattice sites. Unlike quasifree rotors with rotational line spectra subject to textbook attention in quantum mechanics, the off-center species are hindered rotors with spectra quantized in rotational bands. These bands occur because of tunneling through barriers arising along the orbital path. For an off-center ion rotating along a planar orbit, such as the Li ϩ impurity nearest-neighboring an F center in alkali halide, the hindered rotation will give rise to specific magnetic moments that couple to and quantize external magnetic fields normal to the orbital plane. We present a simple theory and estimates of Li ϩ magnetic dipoles and rotational bands to find conditions for an experimental verification. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem 89: 371-376, 2002