Evolution of electron–boson spectral density in the underdoped region of Bi2Sr2−xLaxCuO6

We use a maximum entropy technique to obtain the electron–boson spectral density from optical scattering rate data across the underdoped region of the Bi2Sr2−xLaxCuO6 (Bi-2201) phase diagram. Our method involves a generalization of previous work which explicitly includes finite temperature and the opening of a pseudogap which modifies the electronic structure. We find that the mass enhancement factor λ associated with the electron–boson spectral density increases monotonically with reduced doping and closer proximity to the Mott antiferromagnetic insulating state. This observation is consistent with increased coupling to the spin fluctuations. At the same time the system has reduced metallicity because of increased pseudogap effects which we model with a reduced effective density of states around the Fermi energy with the range of the modifications in energy set by the pseudogap scale. (paper)