Kondo disorder: a possible route towards non-Fermi-liquid behaviour

Abstract

We present a general model of disorder in Kondo alloys that, under certain conditions, leads to non-Fermi liquid behavior. The central underlying idea is the presence of a distribution of local Kondo temperature scales. If this distribution is broad enough, such that there are sites with arbitrarily low Kondo temperatures, a non-Fermi liquid phase is formed. We analyze thermodynamics and transport in this approach and show it is consistent with a number of Kondo alloys. We also compare the predictions of this model with the measured dynamical magnetic response of these systems.