Revealing the Coulomb interaction strength in a cuprate superconductor

TL;DR

This study uses angle-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy to measure unoccupied states in a cuprate superconductor, revealing a Coulomb interaction strength of 2.7 eV and a charge-transfer gap of 1.1 eV.

Contribution

It provides a direct spectroscopic measurement of unoccupied states and Coulomb interaction strength in a cuprate superconductor, complementing existing methods.

Findings

Coulomb U is determined to be 2.7 eV.

Charge-transfer gap is 1.1 eV.

Unoccupied states match Hubbard model predictions.

Abstract

We study optimally doped Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$Ca$_{0.92}$Y$_{0.08}$Cu$_{2}$O$_{8+\delta}$ (Bi2212) using angle-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy. Three spectral features are resolved near 1.5, 2.7, and 3.6 eV above the Fermi level. By tuning the photon energy, we determine that the 2.7-eV feature arises predominantly from unoccupied states. The 1.5- and 3.6-eV features reflect unoccupied states whose spectral intensities are strongly modulated by the corresponding occupied states. These unoccupied states are consistent with the prediction from a cluster perturbation theory based on the single-band Hubbard model. Through this comparison, a Coulomb interaction strength U of 2.7 eV is extracted. Our study complements equilibrium photoemission spectroscopy and provides a direct spectroscopic measurement of the unoccupied states in cuprates. The determined Coulomb U indicates that the charge-transfer gap of optimally doped Bi2212 is 1.1 eV.