Charge order driven by Fermi-arc instability in Bi2201

The understanding of the origin of superconductivity in cuprates has been hindered by the apparent diversity of intertwining electronic orders in these materials. We combined resonant x-ray scattering (REXS), scanning-tunneling microscopy (STM), and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to observe a charge order that appears consistently in surface and bulk, and in momentum and real space within one cuprate family, Bi2201. The observed wave vectors rule out simple antinodal nesting in the single-particle limit but match well with a phenomenological model of a many-body instability of the Fermi arcs. Combined with earlier observations of electronic order in other cuprate families, these findings suggest the existence of a generic charge-ordered state in underdoped cuprates and uncover its intimate connection to the pseudogap regime.