Kondo effect and spin-orbit coupling in graphene quantum dots.

Authors :: Kurzmann A
Kleeorin Y
Tong C
Garreis R
Knothe A
Eich M
Mittag C
Gold C
de Vries FK
Watanabe K
Taniguchi T
Fal'ko V
Meir Y
Ihn T
Ensslin K
Source :: Nature communications [Nat Commun] 2021 Oct 14; Vol. 12 (1), pp. 6004. Date of Electronic Publication: 2021 Oct 14.
Publication Year :: 2021
Abstract: The Kondo effect is a cornerstone in the study of strongly correlated fermions. The coherent exchange coupling of conduction electrons to local magnetic moments gives rise to a Kondo cloud that screens the impurity spin. Here we report on the interplay between spin-orbit interaction and the Kondo effect, that can lead to a underscreened Kondo effects in quantum dots in bilayer graphene. More generally, we introduce a different experimental platform for studying Kondo physics. In contrast to carbon nanotubes, where nanotube chirality determines spin-orbit coupling breaking the SU(4) symmetry of the electronic states relevant for the Kondo effect, we study a planar carbon material where a small spin-orbit coupling of nominally flat graphene is enhanced by zero-point out-of-plane phonons. The resulting two-electron triplet ground state in bilayer graphene dots provides a route to exploring the Kondo effect with a small spin-orbit interaction.<br /> (© 2021. The Author(s).)