Introducing the Inner Structure of the Magnetic Atom in the Interaction Between a Transition Metal Atom Impurity and a Metal Surface

Abstract

This paper presents a review of the work performed by the authors toincorporate the inner structure of a d-shell magnetic atom in the description of the many-body interaction between a transition metal atom impurity and a metal host.Two main assumptions are made in this approach: (i) the magnetic atom has anorbital singlet with a total electronic spin S (as corresponds to a case for whichthe angular moment is quenched); (ii) the first Hunds rule determines the innerelectronic structure of the magnetic atom. Using these two assumptions and therotational symmetry of the electronic spin, an ionic Hamiltonian is introduced and, in a further step, the effective exchange metal atom coupling and the impurity Kondo temperature are analyzed.