We report on a Kondo effect on Co/Sb(111) mediating topological protection of the surface states against local magnetic perturbations. A sharp scanning tunneling spectroscopic peak near the Fermi energy is interpreted as a fingerprint of the Kondo resonance with a high Kondo temperature of about 200 K. Density function theory calculations reveal that the protruding Co adatoms are responsible for the Kondo peak, while the Co atoms underneath present as nonmagnetic impurities. By identifying the quasiparticle interference wavevectors, we demonstrate that only scattering channels related to backscattering confinements are observed for surfaces with and without the Co adsorption. It suggests that the Kondo effect suppresses the backscattering of the topological surface states and may help to expand the functionality of magnetically coupled topological materials for spintronics applications.
Keywords: Kondo effect; Sb(111); quasiparticle interference; time reversal symmetry; topological surface states.