Manifestations of the electron-phonon interaction range in angle resolved photoemission spectra

Numerous angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies of a wide class of low-density metallic systems, ranging from doped transition metal oxides to quasi two-dimensional interfaces between insulators, exhibit phonon sidebands below the quasi-particle peak as a unique hallmark of polaronic correlations. Here, we single out properties of ARPES spectra that can provide a robust estimate of the effective range (screening length) of the electron-phonon interaction, regardless of the limited experimental resolution, dimensionality and particular features of the electronic structure, facilitating a general methodology for an analysis of a whole class of materials.