Occurrence of Fermi Pockets without Pseudogap Hypothesis and Clarification of the Energy Distribution Curves of Angle-Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy in Underdoped Cuprate Superconductors

TL;DR

This paper models the electronic structure of underdoped cuprate superconductors, revealing Fermi pockets without pseudogap assumptions and clarifying ARPES energy distribution curves, emphasizing the coexistence of metallic and antiferromagnetic states.

Contribution

It introduces a model based on Jahn-Teller and Mott physics to explain Fermi pockets and ARPES features without pseudogap hypothesis, providing new insights into the phase diagram.

Findings

Fermi pockets exist without pseudogap in underdoped cuprates.

ARPES profiles show a coherent peak and broad hump explained by the model.

Two distinct gaps are explained without pseudogap concept.

Abstract

Central issues in the electronic structure of underdoped cuprate superconductors are to clarify the shape of the Fermi surfaces and the origin of the pseudogap. On the basis of the model proposed by Kamimura and Suwa, which bears important features originating from the interplay of Jahn-Teller physics and Mott physics, the feature of Fermi surfaces in underdoped cuprates is the presence of Fermi pockets constructed from doped holes under the coexistence of a metallic state and a local antiferromagnetic order. Below $T_{\rm c}$, the holes on Fermi pockets form Cooper pairs with d-wave symmetry in the nodal region. In the antinodal region, there are no Fermi surfaces. In this study we calculate the energy distribution curves (EDCs) of angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) below $T_{\rm c}$. It is shown that the feature of ARPES profiles of underdoped cuprates consists of a coherent peak in the nodal region and real transitions of photoexcited electrons from occupied states below the Fermi level to a free-electron state above the vacuum level in the antinodal region, where the latter transitions form a broad hump. From this feature, the origin of the two distinct gaps observed by ARPES is elucidated without introducing the concept of the pseudogap. Finally, a remark is made on the phase diagram of underdoped cuprates.