Pseudogap-induced asymmetric tunneling in cuprate superconductors

The asymmetric tunneling in cuprate superconductors is studied based on the kinetic energy driven superconducting mechanism. By taking into account the interplay between the superconducting gap and normal-state pseudogap, the essential feature of the evolution of the asymmetric tunneling with doping and temperature is qualitatively reproduced. In particular, the asymmetry of the tunneling spectrum in the underdoped regime weakens with increasing doping, and then the symmetric tunneling spectrum recovers in the heavily overdoped regime. The theory also shows that the asymmetric tunneling is a natural consequence due to the presence of the normal-state pseudogap.