A high-resolution cross-sectional analysis for Fourier-transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy and fully-phased Green-function-based quasiparticle scattering theories

TL;DR

This paper develops a high-resolution cross-sectional analysis method for FTSTS data, improving the interpretation of quasiparticle interference signals in high-Tc superconductors by addressing data artifacts and model limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a simple cross-sectional analysis with Gaussian averaging and set-point modeling, enhancing the correlation between experimental data and Green's function-based theories without requiring detailed tunneling matrix information.

Findings

Enhanced correlation between FTSTS data and theoretical simulations.

Effective handling of noise and artifacts in FTSTS data.

Potential for a more robust framework for phase transition studies.

Abstract

The Fourier-transform scanning tunneling spectroscopy (FTSTS) contains rich signals related to the quasiparticle scattering interference and/or the density-wave-like orders which are crucial in interpretation of the ground states and the phase transitions in quasi-2D strongly correlated electron systems such as cuprate and pnictide high-Tc superconductors. The octet model has been used to describe the FTSTS data according to the simplified banana band model of cuprates in superconducting ground state and worked well deep inside the superconducting dome, but away from the superconducting ground state the description starts to show severe limitations, such as appearance of particle-hole asymmetry of the quasiparticle band as will be discussed later. The first efforts to describe the FTSTS signals based on the fully-phased Green's function-based quasiparticle scattering interference theory, however lacked the full similarity to the FTSTS data, in part due to the lack of accurate information on the tunneling and scattering matrix elements. In this paper we discuss how the noise due to the potential disorder and the various artifacts in the raw FTSTS data can be handled by a simple cross-sectional analysis with an isotropic Gaussian averaging and modeling the set-point effect by an energy-independent and position-dependent factor to the density of states function. The result shows that in the cross-sectional presentation an enhanced correlation exists between the FTSTS data and the theoretical simulation even without the accurate model for the tunneling and the scattering matrix elements and without the assumption for particle-hole symmetry, suggesting that it can be a new starting point of a more robust quantum physical analysis framework appropriate for the phase transition study in the high-Tc superconductors and other strongly correlated electron systems.