This article is cited in 29 papers

CONDENSED MATTER

Free Magnetic Moments in Disordered Metals

S. Kettemann^ab, E. R. Mucciolo<sup>c

a</sup> Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems, Dresden, Germany
^b Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität Hamburg, 20355 Hamburg, Germany
^c Department of Physics, University of Central Florida

Abstract: The screening of magnetic moments in metals, the Kondo effect, is found to be quenched with a finite probability in the presence of nonmagnetic disorder. Numerical results for a disordered electron system show that the distribution of Kondo temperatures deviates strongly from the result expected from random matrix theory. A pronounced second peak emerges for small Kondo temperatures, showing that the probability that magnetic moments remain unscreened at low temperatures increases with disorder. Analytical calculations, taking into account correlations between eigenfunction intensities yield a finite width for the distribution in the thermodynamic limit. Experimental consequences for disordered mesoscopic metals are discussed.

PACS: 72.10.Fk, 72.15.-m, 75.20.Hr

Received: 23.01.2006
Revised: 13.02.2006

Language: English

 English version: Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters, 2006, 83:6, 240–245

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