Effect of disorder on the Kondo behavior of thin Cu(Mn) films

TL;DR

This study investigates how disorder affects the Kondo effect in thin Cu(Mn) films, showing that increased disorder suppresses the Kondo contribution to resistivity, with detailed dependence on film thickness and mean-free-path, compared to existing theories.

Contribution

It provides detailed experimental analysis of disorder's impact on the Kondo effect in Cu(Mn) films, highlighting quantitative discrepancies with existing theoretical models.

Findings

Kondo contribution to resistivity decreases with increased disorder.

Suppression depends on film thickness and elastic mean-free-path.

Qualitative agreement with theory but some quantitative differences.

Abstract

We have studied the influence of disorder on the Kondo effect in thin films of Cu(Mn), i.e., Cu doped with a small amount of Mn. We find that the Kondo contribution to the resistivity is suppressed when the elastic mean-free-path, $\lambda$, is reduced. While this is qualitatively similar to results found previously by our group in a different material, our new experiments reveal in detail how this suppression depends on both film thickness and $\lambda$. These results are compared with the theory of Martin, Wan, and Phillips. While there is general qualitative agreement with this theory, there appear to be some quantitative discrepancies.