Disorder-mediated Kondo effect in graphene

Abstract

We study the emergence of strongly correlated states and Kondo physics in disordered graphene. Diluted short range disorder gives rise to localized midgap states at the vicinity of the system charge neutrality point. We show that long-range disorder, ubiquitous in graphene, allows for the coupling of these localized states to an effective (disorder averaged) metallic band. The system is described by an Anderson-like model. We use the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method to study the distributions of Kondo temperatures $P(T_K)$. The results show that disorder can lead to long logarithmic tails in $P(T_K)$, consistent with a quantum Griffiths phase.