We present a new phenomenological mean field approach aiming at the calculation of properties of exotic nuclei. This approach combines the microscopic description of the spin-orbit properties in terms of particle densities, but also vector spin-orbit densities, inspired by results obtained within the Skyrme Hartree–Fock formalism, thus including the contribution of the tensor force. At the same time, the new approach preserves the simplicity of the phenomenological Woods–Saxon calculations and, more importantly, the robustness of the latter towards extrapolations in terms of increasing number of particles and/or isospin.

PACS numbers: 21.60.–n, 21.10.–k