Condensed Matter Seminar Series

Title: Quest for Novel Kondo Nano Liquids

Karyn Le Hur

Yale University

Thursday November 16,  11:30 am,  Room 298,  Physics Building

Abstract:  The Kondo effect is a strong-correlation effect that occurs in a variety of different systems and settings, and acts as a paradigm in the field of strongly-correlated electrons. It involves a localized magnetic impurity embedded in a bulk metal which is weakly coupled to conduction electrons via a weak exchange interaction. Despite the seemingly weak coupling, at sufficiently low temperatures the system is described by an effective infinite-coupling Hamiltonian and an unusual ground state where the impurity forms a singlet state with a cloud of conduction electrons centered on the impurity. The Kondo effect has also relevance in systems which at first glance look very different from a magnetic impurity in a metal such as mesoscopic structures made of artificial atoms (quantum dots). We will show that the development of nanotechnology has done more than provide an extremely controlled test of existing theory: it has also raised a number of new fundamental questions.