A low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope is employed to build a junction comprising a Co atom bridging a copper-coated tip and a Cu(100) surface. An Abrikosov-Suhl-Kondo resonance is evidenced in the differential conductance and its width is shown to vary exponentially with the ballistic conductance regardless of the tip structure. Using a theoretical description based on the Anderson model, we show that the Kondo effect and the conductance are related through the atomic relaxations affecting the environment of the Co atom.
@article{arxiv.1112.2858,
title = {Conductance-Driven Kondo Effect in a Single Cobalt Atom},
author = {D-J. Choi and M. V. Rastei and P. Simon and L. Limot},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1112.2858},
year = {2012}
}