Spin-orbit coupling and Kondo resonance in Co adatom on Cu(100) surface: DFT+ED study

Abstract: We report density functional theory plus exact diagonalization of the multi-orbital Anderson impurity model calculations for the Co adatom on the top of Cu(001) surface. For the Co atom $d$-shell occupation $n_d \approx$ 8, a singlet many-body ground state and Kondo resonance are found, when the spin-orbit coupling is included in the calculations. The differential conductance is evaluated in a good agreement with the scanning tuneling microscopy measurements. The results illustrate the essential role which the spin-orbit coupling is playing in a formation of Kondo singlet for the multi-orbital impurity in low dimensions.