  We study laser induced spin-orbit (SO) coupling in cold atom systems where
lasers couple three internal states to a pair of excited states, in a double
tripod topology. Proper choice of laser amplitudes and phases produces a
Hamiltonian with a doubly degenerate ground state separated from the remaining
"excited" eigenstates by gaps determined by the Rabi frequencies of the
atom-light coupling. After eliminating the excited states with a Born-
Oppenheimer approximation, the Hamiltonian of the remaining two states includes
Dresselhaus (or equivalently Rashba) SO coupling. Unlike earlier proposals,
here the SO coupled states are the two lowest energy "dressed" spin states and
are thus immune to collisional relaxation. Finally, we discuss a specific
implementation of our system using Raman transitions between different
hyperfine states within the electronic ground state manifold of nuclear spin I
= 3/2 alkali atoms.
