Out-of-plane electronic contributions in Bi-cuprates studied by resonant photoelectron spectroscopy at the Cu 2p edge

In high-temperature superconductors with a layered crystal structure out-of-plane contributions are often neglected, while the copper-oxygen planes are commonly considered to dominate the electronic properties around the Fermi energy. Here we report on a resonant photoemission study of (Pb,Bi)2201 and (Pb,Bi)2212 single crystals to unravel the resonant decay mechanisms at the Cu 2p absorption edge. We demonstrate a pronounced polarization dependence caused by two different Auger processes for in-plane and out-of-plane orientations. We deduce that the lowest energy valence state being involved in the two Auger processes, consists of three-dimensional contributions by admixed out-of-plane Sr, Bi, and O 2p states. It also suggests that the doping-induced charge density is dynamic, fluctuating within the Cu-O plane, and spills out perpendicular to it.