Anisotropic electronic structure of in-plane aligned a-axis YBa2Cu3O7-δ thin films

Polarization-dependent x-ray absorption near-edge spectra (XANES) of the O 1s has been measured on a highly in-plane aligned a-axis YBa2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) thin film. The in-plane XANES, with the electric field E of the linearly polarized synchrotron light being parallel to the b or c axis of YBCO films (E//b or E//c) were obtained in a normal-incidence alignment. The XANES for E//a was then calculated from the data obtained by varying the angle. The results lend strong support to those obtained by using detwinned YBCO single crystals in all crystalline orientations, including the extrapolated c-axis spectra. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.