Effect of strong correlations on the high energy anomaly in hole- and electron-doped high-Tc superconductors

Recently, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) has been used to highlight an anomalously large band renormalization at high binding energies in cuprate superconductors: the high energy “waterfall” or high energy anomaly (HEA). This paper demonstrates, using a combination of new ARPES measurements and quantum Monte Carlo simulations, that the HEA is not simply the byproduct of matrix element effects, but rather represents a cross-over from a quasi-particle band at low binding energies near the Fermi level to valence bands at higher binding energy, assumed to be of strong oxygen character, in both holeand electron-doped cuprates. While photoemission matrix elements clearly play a role in changing the aesthetic appearance of the band dispersion, i.e. the “waterfall”-like behavior, they provide an inadequate description for the physics that underlies the strong band renormalization giving rise to the HEA. Model calculations of the single-band Hubbard Hamiltonian showcase the role played by correlations in the formation of the HEA and uncover significant differences in the HEA energy scale for holeand electron-doped cuprates. In addition, this approach properly captures the transfer of spectral weight accompanying both hole and electron doping in a correlated material and provides a unifying description of the HEA across both sides of the cuprate phase diagram. PACS numbers: 79.60.-i, 71.10.Fd, 74.25.Jb, 74.72.-h SLAC-PUB-13842