Superconductivity distorted by the coexisting pseudogap in the antinodal region of Bi$_{1.5}$Pb$_{0.55}$Sr$_{1.6}$La$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+\delta}$: A photon-energy-dependent angle-resolved photoemission study

Abstract

The interplay between superconductivity and the pseudogap is an important aspect of cuprate physics. However, the nature of the pseudogap remains controversial, in part because different experiments have suggested different gap functions. Here we present a photon-energy-dependence angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) study on Bi$_{1.5}$Pb$_{0.55}$Sr$_{1.6}$La$_{0.4}$CuO$_{6+\delta}$. We find that antinodal ARPES spectra at low photon energies are dominated by background signals which can lead to a misevaluation of the spectral gap size. Once background is properly accounted for, independent of photon energy, the antinodal spectra robustly show two coexisting features at different energies dominantly attributed to the pseudogap and superconductivity, as well as an overall spectral gap which deviates from a simple d-wave form. These results support the idea that the spectral gap is distorted due to the competition between the pseudogap and superconductivity.