Theory of Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Kondo Ions on Metal Surfaces

Abstract

The conduction electron density of states nearby a single magnetic impurity, as measured recently by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), is calculated. It is shown that the Kondo effect induces a narrow Fano resonance as an intrinsic feature in the conduction electron density of states. The line shape varies with the distance between STM tip and impurity, in qualitative agreement with experiments, and is sensitive to details of the band structure. For a Co impurity the experimentally observed width and shift of the Kondo resonance are in accordance with those obtained from a combination of band structure and strongly correlated calculations.