Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy of Sr₂CuO₂Cl₂

We have investigated the lowest binding-energy electronic structure of the model cuprate Sr₂CuO₂Cl₂ using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Our data from about 80 cleavages of Sr₂CuO₂Cl₂ single crystals give a comprehensive, self-consistent picture of the nature of the first electron-removal state in this model undoped CuO₂-plane cuprate. First, we show a strong dependence on the polarization of the excitation light which is understandable in the context of the matrix element governing the photoemission process, which gives a state with the symmetry of a Zhang-Rice singlet. Secondly, the strong, oscillatory dependence of the intensity of the Zhang-Rice singlet on the exciting photon energy is shown to be consistent with interference effects connected with the periodicity of the crystal structure in the crystallographic c direction. Thirdly, we measured the dispersion of the first electron-removal states along Γ⃗(π,π) and Γ⃗(π,0), the latter being controversial in the literature, and have shown that the data are best fitted using an extended tJ model, and extract the relevant model parameters. An analysis of the spectral weight of the first ionization states for different excitation energies within the approach used by Leung et al. [Phys. Rev. B 56, 6320 (1997)] results in a strongly photon-energy dependent ratio between the coherent and incoherent spectral weight. The possible reasons for this observation and its physical implications are discussed.