Circular dichroism in angle-resolved photoemission spectra of under- and overdoped Pb-Bi2212

TL;DR

This study uses angle-resolved photoemission with circular polarization to show that the Pb-Bi2212 superconductor does not exhibit time-reversal symmetry breaking, challenging previous findings in similar materials.

Contribution

It introduces an independent experimental approach confirming the absence of time-reversal symmetry violation in Pb-Bi2212, contrasting prior reports in related cuprates.

Findings

No signatures of time-reversal symmetry breaking in Pb-Bi2212.

Dichroic signal maintains reflection antisymmetry across temperature and doping.

Results suggest non-universality of TRS violation in cuprate superconductors.

Abstract

We use angle-resolved photoemission with circularly polarized excitation to demonstrate that in the 5x1 superstructure-free Pb-Bi2212 material there are no signatures of time-reversal symmetry breaking in the sense of the criteria developed earlier (Kaminski et al. Nature {\bf 416}, 610 (2002)). In addition to the existing technique, we suggest and apply an independent experimental approach to prove the absence of the effect in the studied compounds. The dichroic signal retains reflection antisymmetry as a function of temperature and doping and in all mirror planes, precisely defined by the experimental dispersion at low energies. The obtained results demonstrate that the signatures of time-reversal symmetry violation in pristine Bi2212, as determined by ARPES, are not a universal feature of all cuprate superconductors.