Inconsistency of the photoemission spectrum with the spectral function in Kondo systems

Abstract

Kondo effect is an example of asymptotic freedom where the antiferromagnetic coupling between a localized magnetic moment and valence electrons, increases with reducing temperature. The electronic spectral function for such a system predicts a narrow Kondo resonance close to Fermi energy below its Kondo temperature 'TK'. The internal energy level structure of the localized magnetic moment introduces sidebands near the Kondo resonance, each with its respective Kondo temperature increasing as the sideband position moves towards higher binding energies. Consequently, the temperature dependence of the resonance features becomes weaker as we go towards higher binding energies. Here, we show a Ce4f photoemission spectral evolution obtained from a prototypical Kondo system CeAl2, departing from the predictions of the spectral function. Our measurements reveal a uniform temperature dependence for all the well screened Ce4f photoemission features (4f1 final state), which are usually interpreted as resonance features, as we reduce the temperature suggesting that the resonance interpretation for the 4f1 final state features is not appropriate. Instead, the spectral evolution is explained simply by the temperature dependence of the strength of the coupling between Ce4f and valence electrons, which remains uniform over the range of 4f1 final state features. As a possible explanation to the observed spectral evolution, we propose the phenomenon of collapse of the Kondo singlet wave function upon photoelectron kinetic energy measurement, analogous to the wave function collapse observed upon measurements performed on an entangled EPR (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) pair. Our proposal highlights how experiments studying single particle properties, when performed on a quantum system, give incomplete information about the many-body physics of the system.