Anderson Impurity in Helical Metal
Xiao-Yong Feng, Wei-Qiang Chen, Jin-Hua Gao, Qiang-Hua Wang, and, Fu-Chun Zhang
TL;DR
This paper investigates the Kondo effect of a magnetic impurity on a topological insulator surface, revealing anisotropic spin correlations and full screening of the impurity spin by orbital angular momentum due to strong spin-orbit coupling.
Contribution
It introduces a trial wave function approach to analyze the impurity spin screening and anisotropic correlations in helical metals, highlighting the role of orbital angular momentum.
Findings
Impurity spin is quenched by conduction electrons.
Spin-spin correlation is strongly anisotropic.
Out-of-plane impurity spin is fully screened by orbital angular momentum.
Abstract
We use a trial wave function to study the spin-1/2 Kondo effect of a helical metal on the surface of a three-dimensional topological insulator. While the impurity spin is quenched by conduction electrons, the spin-spin correlation of the conduction electron and impurity is strongly anisotropic in both spin and spatial spaces. As a result of strong spin-orbit coupling, the out-of-plane component of the impurity spin is found to be fully screened by the orbital angular momentum of the conduction electrons.
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