Kondo screening suppression by spin-orbit interaction in quantum dots

We study the transport properties of a quantum dot embedded in an Aharonov-Bohm ring in the presence of spin-orbit interactions. Using a numerical renormalization-group analysis of the system in the Kondo regime, we find that the competition of Aharonov-Bohm and spin-orbit dynamical phases induces a strong suppression of the Kondo state singlet, somewhat akin to an effective intrinsic magnetic field in the system. This effective field breaks the spin degeneracy of the localized state and produces a finite magnetic moment in the dot. By introducing an in-plane Zeeman field we show that the Kondo resonance can be fully restored, re-establishing the spin singlet and a desired spin-filtering behavior in the Kondo regime, which may result in full spin polarization of the current through the ring.