Mapping the Electronic Structure of Each Ingredient Oxide Layer of High-$T_\textrm{c}$ Cuprate Superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+{\delta}

Abstract

Understanding the mechanism of high transition temperature (Tc) superconductivity in cuprates has been hindered by the apparent complexity of their multilayered crystal structure. Using a cryogenic scanning tunneling microscopy, we report on layer-by-layer probing of the electronic structures of all ingredient planes (BiO, SrO, CuO2) of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+{\delta} superconductor prepared by argon-ion bombardment and annealing technique. We show that the well-known pseudogap (PG) feature observed by STM is inherently a property of the BiO planes and thus irrelevant directly to Cooper pairing. The SrO planes exhibit an unexpected Van Hove singularity near the Fermi level, while the CuO2 planes are exclusively characterized by a smaller gap inside the PG. The small gap becomes invisible near Tc, which we identify as the superconducting gap. The above results constitute severe constraints on any microscopic model for high Tc superconductivity in cuprates.