Kondo screening regimes of a quantum dot with a single Mn ion

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a single Mn ion in a quantum dot influences Kondo effects and transport properties, revealing two distinct regimes depending on the ferromagnetic coupling strength, with potential applications to magnetic molecules on surfaces.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of Kondo regimes in a quantum dot with a magnetic Mn ion, highlighting the tunable crossover between different screening states using numerical renormalization group methods.

Findings

Two distinct Kondo regimes identified: fully screened and partially screened large-spin states.

Crossover between regimes can be controlled by tunnel coupling adjustments.

Conductance behavior reflects the underlying magnetic and electronic interactions.

Abstract

We study the Kondo and transport properties of a quantum dot with a single magnetic Mn ion connected to metallic leads. By employing a numerical renormalization group technique we show that depending on the value of ferromagnetic coupling strength between the local electronic spin and the magnetic moment of the Mn, two distinct Kondo regimes exist. In the weak coupling limit, the system can be found in a completely screened Kondo state describing a local magnetic moment decoupled from the rest of the system. In contrast, in the strong coupling regime the quantum dot spin and the local magnetic moment form a single large-spin entity partially Kondo screened. A crossover between these two regimes can be suitably tuned by varying the tunnel coupling between the quantum dot electron and the leads. The model investigated here is also suitable to study magnetic molecules adsorbed on a metallic surface. The rich phenomenology of these systems is reflected in the conductance across the system.