Electronic effect of doped oxygen atoms in Bi2201 superconductors determined by scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

Oxygen dopants are essential for tuning the electronic properties of the cuprate superconductors Bi2Sr2Can−1CunO2n+4+δ. Here, we study an optimally doped Bi2Sr2−xLaxCuO6+δ and an overdoped Bi2−yPbySr2CuO6+δ by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/STS). Based on the characteristic features of local STS, three forms of oxygen dopants are identified: interstitial oxygen atoms on the SrO layers, oxygen vacancies on the SrO layers, and interstitial oxygen atoms on the BiO layers. In both samples, the first form dominates the number of oxygen dopants. From the extracted spatial distribution of the oxygen dopants, we calculate the dopant concentrations and estimate the average hole carrier density. The magnitudes of the electronic pseudogap state in both samples are inhomogeneously distributed in space. The statistical analysis on the spatial distributions of the oxygen dopants and the pseudogap magnitude demonstrates that the doped oxygen atoms on the SrO layers tend to suppress the nearby pseudogap magnitude.