This award supports Professors Juan Carlos Campuzano of the University of Illinois at Chicago and Arun Bansil of Northeastern University, to collaborate in materials research with Professors M. Lindroos and M. Pessa of the Physics Department of Tampere University of Technology, Finland. They will carry out a joint theoretical and experimental program to investigate the electronic structure of the high-Tc superconductors via angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Their research builds on the basis of highly productive past collaboration that has demonstrated the synergistic effect of their complementary theoretical and experimental expertise. With the increasing interest in angle-resolved photoemission studies of superconducting compounds, there is a need to obtain corresponding theoretical intensities. The proposed research will compare experimental spectra to first-principles predictions of the photoemission intensities in order to obtain significant new information and further understanding of the electronic structure of the new superconductors. Results should also help to establish the extent to which the conventional band theory picture can be used to describe the normal state electronic structure of the new materials.
