Exploring Quasiparticles in High-Tc Cuprates Through Photoemission, Tunneling, and X-ray Scattering Experiments

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the second energy scale observed in high-Tc cuprates is better explained by quasiparticle lifetime effects rather than a competing order, using a phenomenological model to unify various experimental observations.

Contribution

It introduces a minimal model linking quasiparticle lifetime to experimental features in STM, REXS, and photoemission, challenging previous interpretations of the pseudogap.

Findings

The second energy scale correlates with quasiparticle inverse lifetime.

The model quantitatively fits STM and REXS data.

Highlights the importance of inelastic scattering in the pseudogap phase.

Abstract

One of the key challenges in the field of high-temperature superconductivity is understanding the nature of fermionic quasiparticles. Experiments consistently demonstrate the existence of a second energy scale, distinct from the d-wave superconducting gap, that persists above the transition temperature into the "pseudogap" phase. One common class of models relates this energy scale to the quasiparticle gap due to a competing order, such as the incommensurate "checkerboard" order observed in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and resonant elastic X-ray scattering (REXS). In this paper we show that these experiments are better described by identifying the second energy scale with the inverse lifetime of quasiparticles. We develop a minimal phenomenological model that allows us to quantitatively describe STM and REXS experiments and discuss their relation with photoemission spectroscopy. Our study refocuses questions about the nature of the pseudogap phase to the study of the origin of inelastic scattering.