Kondo impurities in nanoscopic systems: new confinement-induced regimes

Abstract

We present results for Kondo impurities in nanoscopic systems. Using exact diagonalization in small clusters and Wilson's renormalization group we analyze an isolated system and a nanoscopic system weakly coupled to a macroscopic reservoir. In the latter case, new regimes not observed in macroscopic homogeneous systems are induced by the confinement of conduction electrons. These new confinement-induced regimes are very different depending on whether the Fermi energy coincides with the energy of a resonant state or lies between two quasi-bound states.