Measuring the gap in angle-resolved photoemission experiments on cuprates

Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is considered as the only experimental tool from which the momentum distribution of both the superconducting gap and pseudogap can be quantitatively derived. The binding energy of the leading edge of the photoemission spectrum, usually called the leading edge gap (LEG), is the model-independent quantity which can be measured in the modern ARPES experiments with the very high accuracy—better than 1 meV. This, however, may be useless as long as the relation between the LEG and the real gap is unknown. We present a systematic study of the LEG as a function of a number of physical and experimental parameters. The absolute gap values which have been derived from the numerical simulation prove, for example, that the nodal direction in the underdoped Bi-2212 in superconducting state is really the node—the gap is zero. The other consequences of the simulations are discussed.