Rashba-induced Kondo screening of a magnetic impurity in a two-dimensional superconductor

Abstract

We study the Kondo screening of a magnetic impurity in a two-dimensional superconductor with Rashba spin-orbit coupling (SOC). It is found that the Rashba interaction generates a novel Kondo screening channel, in which the local moment is screened by the exchange coupling with conduction electrons in different spin and orbital states. The Kondo temperature associated with this process is determined by the interplay between the Rashba SOC and superconducting energy gap. As a result, the quantum phase transition between the magnetic doublet and Kondo singlet ground states is significantly affected by increasing Rashba SOC in such a system. This result uncovers that the Rashba SOC plays an instructive role and provides a novel screening channel for the Kondo effect, which is expected to be observed in future experiments.