| The Kondo effect has been observed inside metals containing magnetic impurities. Kondo effects are believed to be important in materials where the interactions between electrons are strong, i..e., high temperature superconductors. The Kondo effect was theoretically explained and involves the screening of the magnetic impurities by a cloud of conduction electrons, the so-called Kondo cloud. The extension of the Kondo-Cloud in the material is not known, and recently Kondo effects were reported in systems that can not be explained by Kondo physics. Recent developments in nanotechnology have made it possible to control and study Kondo effects in a variety of systems, including molecular based systems. Thus, the Kondo-effect remains an interesting many-body system to study despite the fact that it was discovered in the 1930?s and was explained in the 1960?s. To study the Kondo cloud as a function of a large number of different nanostructures, I propose a new Kondo system based on molecules or organic-inorganic hybrid structures carrying one or more unpaired electron spins immobilized on top of a thin conducting film. This geometry offers great flexibility in the nature and density of structures that can be studied, and their interaction with the underlying conducting film. The number of electron spins is defined by the number of molecules or nanostructures deposited at the thin metal film, or by a gate electrode. I expect this system will shine light on the nature of the Kondo screening cloud. |
