In the underdoped high temperature superconductors, instead of a complete Fermi surface above Tc, only disconnected Fermi arcs appear, separated by regions that still exhibit an energy gap. We show that in this pseudogap phase, the energy-momentum relation of electronic excitations near EF behaves like the dispersion of a normal metal on the Fermi arcs, but like that of a superconductor in the gapped regions. We argue that this dichotomy in the dispersion is difficult to reconcile with a competing order parameter, but is consistent with pairing without condensation.

We examine the momentum and energy dependence of the scattering rate of the high-temperature cuprate superconductors using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The scattering rate is of the form a + b around the Fermi surface for under-and optimal doping. The inelastic coefficient b is found to be isotropic. The elastic term a, however, is found to be highly anisotropic for under-and optimally doped samples, with an anisotropy which correlates with that of the pseudogap. This is contrasted with heavily overdoped samples, which show an isotropic scattering rate and an absence of the pseudogap above T c . We find this to be a generic property for both single-and double-layer compounds.

A key question in condensed-matter physics is to understand how high-temperature superconductivity emerges on adding mobile charged carriers to an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator. We address this question using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to probe the electronic excitations of the non-superconducting state that exists between the Mott insulator and the d-wave superconductor in Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ . Despite a temperature-dependent resistivity characteristic of an insulator, the excitations in this intermediate state have a highly anisotropic energy gap that vanishes at four points in momentum space. This nodal-liquid state has the same gap structure as that of the d-wave superconductor but no sharp quasiparticle peaks. We observe a smooth evolution of the excitation spectrum, along with the appearance of coherent quasiparticles, as one goes through the insulator-tosuperconductor transition as a function of doping. Our results suggest that high-temperature superconductivity emerges when quantum phase coherence is established in a nonsuperconducting nodal liquid.High-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates occurs by doping a Mott insulator for which the antiferromagnetic ground state and low-energy excitations are well understood 1 . By adding carriers, the parent insulator turns into a superconductor for dopings that exceed 0.05 holes per CuO 2 plane. The d-wave nature of the superconducting ground state 2 and its low-lying excitations are also well understood. Between these phases lies an electronic ground state that is poorly understood. As the temperature is raised, this intermediate 'pseudogap' state occupies a larger and larger region of the phase diagram (Fig. 1a). It is from this phase that superconductivity emerges for all but the most highly doped samples. Consequently, the nature of this phase holds the key to the origin of high-temperature superconductivity.Whereas the electronic excitations in the high-temperature pseudogap region have been studied extensively, there is little spectroscopic data at low temperatures, as there is only a very narrow window of dopings where neither superconducting nor antiferromagnetic order occurs. Here, we present angleresolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data on single crystals and thin films 3 with doping levels that range all the way from the insulator to the over-doped superconductor. We focus in particular on non-superconducting thin films, just to the left of the superconducting transition temperature T c dome (see Fig. 1a), with an estimated hole doping ∼0. 04 (ref. 3). It is normally quite difficult to span the insulator-superconductor transition in Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ single crystals. However, it is possible to obtain very underdoped thin films by removing oxygen without film decomposition, as their large surface/volume ratio allows much lower annealing temperatures than those required for crystals. The integrity of the insulating films was confirmed by re-oxygenating them and checking their resistivity R(T ) and X-ray diffracti...

Topological insulators constitute a new class of materials with an energy gap in the bulk and peculiar metallic states on the surface. We report on new features resulting from the bulk electronic structure, based on a comprehensive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) study of 77 Se on Bi 2 Se 3 and Cu 0.15 Bi 2 Se 3 single crystals. First, we find two resonance lines and show that they originate from the two inequivalent Se lattice sites. Second, we observe unusual field-independent linewidths and attribute them to an unexpectedly strong internuclear coupling mediated by bulk electrons. In order to support this interpretation, we present a model calculation of the indirect internuclear coupling and show that the Bloembergen-Rowland coupling is much stronger than the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida coupling. Our results call for a revision of earlier NMR studies and add information concerning the bulk electronic properties.