Evidence of Electron Fractionalization from Photoemission Spectra in the High Temperature Superconductors

D. Orgad, S. A. Kivelson, E. W. Carlson, V. J. Emery, X. J. Zhou, Z. X. Shen
2001 Physical Review Letters  
In the normal state of the high temperature superconductors Bi_2Sr_2CaCu_2O_8+delta and La_2-xSr_xCuO_4, and in the related "stripe ordered" material La_1.25Nd_0.6Sr_0.15CuO_4, there is sharp structure in the measured single hole spectral function A(k,w) considered as a function of k at fixed small binding energy w. At the same time, as a function of w at fixed k on much of the putative Fermi surface, any structure in A(k,w), other than the Fermi cutoff, is very broad. This is characteristic of
more » ... the situation in which there are no stable excitations with the quantum numbers of the electron, as is the case in the one dimensional electron gas.
doi:10.1103/physrevlett.86.4362 pmid:11328175 fatcat:lho4wy5uevfx7marbryl56oa34