Magnetic impurity

<p>A magnetic impurity is an <a href="/facts/Impurity/FfPvIRoB">impurity</a> in a host metal that has a <a href="/facts/Magnetic_moment/VpAQKJtr">magnetic moment</a>. The magnetic impurity can then interact with the conduction electrons of the metal, leading to interesting physics such as the <a href="/facts/Kondo_effect/VCfEKDKU">Kondo effect</a>, and <a href="/facts/Heavy_fermion/MT1jnClt">heavy fermion</a> behaviour. Some examples of magnetic impurities that metals can be doped with are <a href="/facts/Iron/QK1JYy8E">iron</a> and <a href="/facts/Nickel/KwMCHYRP">nickel</a>. Such an impurity will contribute a <a href="/facts/Curie-Weiss/w4h6zNqb">Curie-Weiss</a> term to the <a href="/facts/Magnetic_susceptibility/hWMbGTjP">magnetic susceptibility</a>, 
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χ
          
            i
            m
            p
          
        
        =
        
          
            C
            
              T
              +
              θ
            
          
        
      
    
    {\displaystyle \chi _{imp}={\frac {C}{T+\theta }}}
  
.
<p>Early theoretical work concentrated on explaining the trend observed as the impurity was varied across the <a href="/facts/Transition_metal/0slGWoLQ">transition metal</a> group. Based on the idea of a virtual bound state, <a href="/facts/P._W._Anderson/xWPbwpsx">Anderson</a> proposed a model that was successful in explaining the formation of a localized magnetic moment from a magnetic impurity.
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Magnetic impurity open-in-new

Magnetic impurity