Doubling of the bands in overdoped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8-probable evidence for c-axis bilayer coupling

We present high resolution ARPES data of the bilayer superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 (Bi2212) showing a clear doubling of the near EF bands. This splitting approaches zero along the (0,0)-(pi,pi) nodal line and is not observed in single layer Bi2Sr2CuO6 (Bi2201), suggesting that the splitting is due to the long sought after bilayer splitting effect. The splitting has a magnitude of approximately 75 meV near the middle of the zone, extrapolating to about 100 meV near the (pi,0) point