ARPES on HTSC: simplicity vs. complexity

A notable role in understanding of microscopic electronic properties of high temperature superconductors (HTSC) belongs to angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). This technique supplies a direct window into reciprocal space of solids: the momentum-energy space where quasiparticles (the electrons dressed in clouds of interactions) dwell. Any interaction in the electronic system, e.g. superconducting pairing, leads to modification of the quasi-particle spectrum--to redistribution of the spectral weight over the momentum-energy space probed by ARPES. A continued development of the technique had an effect that the picture seen through the ARPES window became clearer and sharper until the complexity of the electronic band structure of the cuprates had been resolved. Now, in an optimal for superconductivity doping range, the cuprates much resemble a normal metal with well predicted electronic structure, though with rather strong electron-electron interaction. This principal disentanglement of the complex physics from complex structure reduced the mystery of HTSC to a tangible problem of interaction responsible for quasi-particle formation. Here we present a short overview of resent ARPES results, which, we believe, denote a way to resolve the HTSC puzzle.Comment: A review written for a special issue of FN

Measuring the gap in ARPES experiments

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is considered as the only experimental tool from which the momentum distribution of both the superconducting and pseudo-gap can be quantitatively derived. The binding energy of the leading edge of the photoemission spectrum, usually called the leading edge gap (LEG), is the model-independent quantity which can be measured in the modern ARPES experiments with the very high accuracy--better than 1 meV. This, however, may be useless as long as the relation between the LEG and the real gap is unknown. We present a systematic study of the LEG as a function of a number of physical and experimental parameters. The absolute gap values which have been derived from the numerical simulation prove, for example that the nodal direction in the underdoped Bi-2212 in superconducting state is really the node--the gap is zero. The other consequences of the simulations are discussed.Comment: revtex4, 9 pages, 6 figure

Doping dependence of the mass enhancement in (Pb,Bi)_2 Sr_2 Ca Cu_2 O_8 at the antinodal point in the superconducting and normal state

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is used to study the mass renormalization of the charge carriers in the high-T_c superconductor (Pb,Bi)_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8 in the vicinity of the (pi,0) point in the superconducting and the normal state. Using matrix element effects at different photon energies and due to a high momentum and energy resolution the bonding and the antibonding bands could be separated in the whole dopant range. A huge anisotropic coupling to a bosonic collective mode is observed below T_c for both bands in particular for the underdoped case. Above T_c, the more isotropic coupling to a continuum or a mode at much higher energy is significantly weaker.Comment: 4 revtex pages, 4 eps figure

Surprises in the doping dependence of the Fermi surface in Bi(Pb)-2212

A detailed and systematic ARPES investigation of the doping-dependence of the normal state Fermi surface (FS) of modulation-free (Pb,Bi)-2212 is presented. The FS does not change in topology away from hole-like at any stage. The data reveal, in addition, a number of surprises. Firstly the FS area does not follow the usual curve describing Tc vs x for the hole doped cuprates, but is down-shifted in doping by ca. 0.05 holes per Cu site, indicating either the break-down of Luttinger's theorem or the consequences of a significant bi-layer splitting of the FS. Secondly, the strong k-dependence of the FS width is shown to be doping independent. Finally, the relative strength of the shadow FS has a doping dependence mirroring that of Tc.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures (revtex