Comments on photoelectron spectroscopy of high-Tc's

Abstract

The photoemission discussion session during the Argonne conference on Fermiology of High-{Tc}'s provided a forum to air a number of unresolved issues in photoelectron spectroscopy. These are: (a) what is the exact energy dependence of the line width of the quasiparticle peaks: (b) are there any chemical potential shifts with hole doping; (c) why is a superconducting gap not observed in Y-123; and (d) different groups report different results in the band structure of Bi-2212. The first issue, while much discussed, essentially becomes a non-issue in the sense that nearly all theories predict a linear as well as a quadratic energy dependence to the quasiparticle lifetime. Furthermore, the data are not yet good enough to distinguish between linear and quadratic dependence in the important region within 0.1 eV of E{sub F}. Regarding chemical potential shifts, they very definitely are observed with hole doping both in Y-123 and Bi-2212 in spite of the claims by RVB enthusiasts to the contrary. In Y-123 the shifts are as large as 0.75 eV. The non-observation of a gap in Y-123 is puzzling, but may be related to surface reconstruction and an overdoped situation. The important question of whether we have one or two bandsmore » near E{sub F} in Bi-2212 revolves around the surface quality of the samples studied by different groups. It is difficult to compare data taken at room temperature vs. data taken at low temperature when no documentation exists that a reconstruction did not occur. We suspect that the small second band championed by the Sendai group is a surface impurity band.« less