The Kondo Effect in the Presence of Magnetic Impurities

H. B. Heersche, Z. de Groot, J. A. Folk, L. P. Kouwenhoven, H. S. J. van der Zant, A. A. Houck, J. Labaziewicz, I. L. Chuang

Published 2005-08-17Version 1

We measure transport through gold grain quantum dots fabricated using electromigration, with magnetic impurities in the leads. A Kondo interaction is observed between dot and leads, but the presence of magnetic impurities results in a gate-dependent zero-bias conductance peak that is split due to an RKKY interaction between the spin of the dot and the static spins of the impurities. A magnetic field restores the single Kondo peak in the case of an antiferromagnetic RKKY interaction. This system provides a new platform to study Kondo and RKKY interactions in metals at the level of a single spin.