Mapping Itinerant Electrons around Kondo Impurities
Abstract
We investigate single Fe and Co atoms buried below a Cu(100) surface using low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy. By mapping the local density of states of the itinerant electrons at the surface, the Kondo resonance near the Fermi energy is analyzed. Probing bulk impurities in this well-defined scattering geometry allows separating the physics of the Kondo system and the measuring process. The line shape of the Kondo signature shows an oscillatory behavior as a function of depth of the impurity as well as a function of lateral distance. The oscillation period along the different directions reveals that the spectral function of the itinerant electrons is anisotropic.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- April 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.166604
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1204.2971
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhRvL.108p6604P
- Keywords:
-
- 72.15.Qm;
- 68.37.Ef;
- 72.10.Fk;
- 75.75.-c;
- Scattering mechanisms and Kondo effect;
- Scanning tunneling microscopy;
- Scattering by point defects dislocations surfaces and other imperfections;
- Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics;
- Condensed Matter - Strongly Correlated Electrons
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Physical Review Letters