Electron-hole symmetry in quasiparticle spectral weight of cuprates observed via infrared and photoemission spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study reveals that Pr$_{0.85}$LaCe$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4- ext{delta}}$ exhibits electron-hole symmetry in quasiparticle spectral weight, challenging previous assumptions about asymmetry in cuprates, and emphasizes the role of Cu3$d$-O2$p$ hybridization.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of electron-hole symmetry in quasiparticle spectral weight in PLCCO, contrasting with prior beliefs of asymmetry in cuprates.

Findings

Low-energy quasiparticle spectral weights in PLCCO are small, similar to hole-doped cuprates.

Effective carrier numbers in superconducting PLCCO are low despite high $T_c$.

Photoemission confirms smaller spectral weight in PLCCO compared to NCCO.

Abstract

We performed an optical spectroscopy study on single crystals of Pr$_{0.85}$LaCe$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4-\delta}$ (PLCCO) to revisit the electron-hole asymmetry, which has been understood as a fundamental property of cuprates. Four differently annealed samples - as-grown, reduced, optimally oxygenated, and over-oxygenated samples - were prepared, which have superconducting transition temperatures, $T_c$ = 0, 15, 24, and 18 K, respectively. We observed that low-energy quasiparticle spectral weights of all the PLCCO samples are significantly small in comparison with those of other electron-doped cuprate families. Instead, they are rather close to those of hole-doped counterpart La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO). Accordingly, estimated effective carrier numbers per Cu atom ($N_{\mathrm{eff}}$/Cu) of superconducting samples are also considerably small, despite their relatively high critical temperatures. Complementary photoemission study reveals that the low-energy quasiparticle spectral weight of PLCCO is much smaller than that of Nd$_{1.85}$Ce$_{0.15}$CuO$_{4-\delta}$ (NCCO), consistent with the optical results. Our observations demonstrate that PLCCO provides the electron-hole symmetry in quasiparticle spectral weight, and highlight the importance of Cu3$d$-O2$p$ hybridization to understand the low-energy spectral weight transfer in doped cuprates.