Valence bands and Fermi-surface topology of untwinned single-crystal YBa2Cu3O6.9

The Limitations of 5f Delocalization and Dispersion

Delocalization in the 5f states of the actinides is an important phenomenon, but poorly quantified. Here, the fundamental limitations of 5f dispersion measurements using angle and momentum resolved variants of photoelectron spectroscopy will be discussed. A novel approach will be suggested, based on a theoretical projection, which should circumvent these limitations: M4,5 X-ray emission spectroscopy. This analysis will utilize the case study of U metal, which can be considered to be the paramount example of 5f dispersion.

Fermi surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8

We study the Fermi surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) with a momentum resolution of approximately 0.01 of the Brillouin zone. We show that, contrary to recent suggestions, the ARPES derived Fermi surface is a large hole barrel centered at (pi,pi), independent of the incident photon energy. We caution that the photon energy and k dependence of the matrix elements, if not properly accounted for, can lead to misinterpretation of ARPES intensities.

Photoemission Studies of High- T c Superconductors: The Superconducting Gap

Over the last several years there have been great improvements in the energy resolution and detection efficiency of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. These improvements have made it possible to discover a number of fascinating features in the electronic structure of the high transition temperature (T(c)) superconductors: apparently bandlike Fermi surfaces, flat-band saddle points, and nested Fermi surface sections. Recent work suggests that these features, previously thought explainable only by one-electron band theory, may be better understood with a many-body approach. Furthermore, other properties of the high-T(c) superconductors, which are difficult to understand with band theory, are well described using a many-body picture. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy has also been used to investigate the nature of the superconducting pairing state, revealing an anisotropic gap consistent with a d-wave order parameter and fueling the current debate over s-wave versus d-wave superconductivity.