Electronic nematic phases have been proposed to occur in various correlated
electron systems and were recently claimed to have been detected in scanning
tunneling microscopy (STM) conductance maps of the pseudogap states of the
cuprate high-temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x (Bi-2212). We
investigate the influence of anisotropic STM tip structures on such
measurements and establish, with a model calculation, the presence of a
tunneling interference effect within an STM junction that induces
energy-dependent symmetry-breaking features in the conductance maps. We
experimentally confirm this phenomenon on different correlated electron
systems, including measurements in the pseudogap state of Bi-2212, showing that
the apparent nematic behavior of the imaged crystal lattice is likely not due
to nematic order but is related to how a realistic STM tip probes the band
structure of a material. We further establish that this interference effect can
be used as a sensitive probe of changes in the momentum structure of the
sample's quasiparticles as a function of energy.Comment: Accepted for publication (PRB - Rapid Communications). Main text (5
pages, 4 figures) + Supplemental Material (4 pages, 4 figures
