Fine-structure in the low-energy excitation spectrum of a high-Tcsuperconductor by polarization-dependent photoemission

Abstract

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy is performed on single crystals of the single-layer high-Tc superconductor Bi(2)Sr(2-x)La(x)CuO(6+d) at optimal doping (x=0.4) in order to study in great detail the Zhang-Rice (ZR) singlet band at the Fermi level. Besides the high crystal quality the advantages of a single-layer material are the absence of bilayer effects and the distinct reduction of thermal broadening. Due to the high energy and angle resolution and, most important, due to the controlled variation of the polarization vector of the synchrotron radiation the emission from the ZR singlet band reveals a distinct fine-structure. It consists of two maxima, the first showing only weak and the second at EF extremely strong polarization dependence. However, our observation has enormous consequences for line shape analyses and the determination of pseudo gaps by photoemission.