Broken particle-hole symmetry at atomically-flat a-axis YBa2Cu3O7 interfaces

We have studied quasiparticle tunneling into atomically flat a-axis films of YBa2Cu3O7-? and DyBa2Cu3O7-? through epitaxial CaTiO3 barriers. The junction heterostructures were grown by oxide molecular beam epitaxy and were carefully optimized using in situ monitoring techniques, resulting in unprecedented crystalline perfection of the superconductor-insulator interface. Below Tc, the tunneling conductance shows the evolution of a large unexpected asymmetrical feature near zero-bias. This is evidence that superconducting YBCO crystals, atomically truncated along the lobe direction with a titanate layer, have intrinsically broken particle-hole symmetry over macroscopically large areas.