Underscreened Kondo effect in quantum dots coupled to ferromagnetic leads

Abstract

We analyze the equilibrium transport properties of underscreened Kondo effect in the case of a two-level quantum dot coupled to ferromagnetic leads. Using the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method, we have determined the gate voltage dependence of the dot's spin and level-resolved spectral functions. We have shown that the polarization of the dot is very susceptible to spin imbalance in the leads and changes sign in the middle of the S=1 Coulomb valley. Furthermore, we have also found that by fine-tuning an external magnetic field one can compensate for the presence of ferromagnetic leads and restore the Kondo effect in the case of $S=1/2$ Coulomb valley. However, the underscreened Kondo effect cannot be fully recovered due to its extreme sensitivity with respect to the magnetic field.