The NATO Advanced Research Workshop took place from 29 May to I June 2000 in the picturesque Hungarian town of Pecs, 220 km south of Budapest. The main goal of the workshop was to review and promote experimental and theoretical research on the problem of Kondo-type scatteringofthe electrons in systems ofreduced dimensionalities. 53 regular participants and 7 observers from 17 different countries attended the workshop. The Kondo effect has been a topic ofintense interest for many years, due in part to its relevance to a variety of other branches of condensed matter physics. In addition to the best known example of magnetic impurities in noble metals, the physics of the Kondo effect is important in many areas of current research, including heavy-fermion physics, correlated electron systems, and high-temperature superconductivity. Of central importance in this problem is the interaction of conduction electrons in the metal with individual magnetic impurities, an interaction which also mediates the interaction ofthe impurities with each other.

Klappentext

The availability of nanolithographic tools and new spectroscopies (scanning tunneling microscope, mechanically controllable break junctions) has opened the possibility of directly probing the Kondo effect on the relevant mesoscopic size scale. This book brings together the major progress that has been made during the past few years on low-dimensional Kondo systems. Apart from size effects in dilute magnetic alloys, the book focuses on the two-channel Kondo effect to describe two-level systems which influence the electron transport through metallic nanobridges and cause dephasing in disordered metal films. It also reveals how quantum dots can be used as perfectly tunable Kondo systems.

Inhalt
Effect of Disorder on the Kondo Behavior of Thin Cu(Mn) Films.- The Kondo Effect and Weak Localization.- Surface Magnetic Anisotropy of Kondo Impurities Induced by Spin-Orbit Scattering.- Thermopower of Mesoscopic Spin Glasses.- Shape-Induced Magnetic Anisotropy in Dilute Magnetic Alloys.- Zero-Bias Transport Anomaly in Metallic Nanobridges Magnetic field dependence and universal conductance fluctuations.- Conductance Noise and Irreversibility in Diluted Magnetic Semiconductors.- Enhancement of Kondo Temperature in Nanometer-Size Point Contacts.- Scanning Tunnelling Spectroscopy of A Single Kondo Impurity.- Two-Channel Kondo Effect from Tunneling Impurities.- Electron Decoherence at Zero Temperature The phenomenology and associated difficulties.- Probing Interactions in Mesoscopic Gold Wires.- Kondo Effect in Non-Equilibrium Theory of energy relaxation induced by dynamical defects in diffusive nanowires.- Tunneling through a Quantum Dot The out-of-equilibrium Kondo effect.- Electron Transport through Quantum Dots: An Unusual Kondo Effect.- The Kondo Effect in a Single-Electron Transistor.- Flux Dependent Dielectric Response of Stacked Nanoscopic Rings.- High-Frequency Response of Two-Level Systems in NixNb1-X Metallic Point Contacts.- Giant Magnetoresistance Of A Single Interface Magnetoresistance of Ag/Fe/Ag trilayers.- Fermi Edge Singularities in Transport through Quantum Dots.- Theory of Magnetoresistance in Films of Dilute Magnetic Alloys.- Current and Shot Noise in a Ferromagnetic Double Tunnel Junction with an Atomic Size Spacer.- Positive Domain-Wall Magnetoresistance of Ferromagnetic Point Contacts.- Enhancement of Kondo Effect Due to Spin-Singlet-Triplet Competition in Quantum Dots.- A Non-Kondo Interpretation of the Experimentally Observed KondoResonances in Quantum Dots.- Diagrammatic Theory of the Anderson Impurity Model with Finite Coulomb Interaction.- Generalized Conductance Sum Rule in Atomic Break Junctions.- Is CENISN A Kondo Semiconductor? Break-junction experiments.- The Influence of Single Magnetic Impurities on the Conductance of Quantum Microconstrictions.- Structural Properties of Colloidal Co Nanoparticles.- Interacting Electrons in a Nearly Straight Quantum Wire.- Resonant Tunneling through an Impurity Level: A Probe of Coherent States in a Disordered Metal.- Pair Breaking in S-Wave Superconductors by Two-Channel Kondo Impurities.- Theory of Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy of Kondo Ions on Metal Surfaces.- Two-Level Systems in Atomic-Size Point Contacts.- Is the Multi-Channel Kondo Model Appropriate to Describe Single Electron Transistors?.- List of Observers.- List of Participants.