  The low-energy excitations of the lightly doped cuprates were studied by
angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A finite gap was measured over the
entire Brillouin zone, including along the d_{x^2 - y^2} nodal line. This
effect was observed to be generic to the normal states of numerous cuprates,
including hole-doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} and Ca_{2-x}Na_{x}CuO_{2}Cl_{2} and
electron-doped Nd_{2-x}Ce_{x}CuO_{4}. In all compounds, the gap appears to
close with increasing carrier doping. We consider various scenarios to explain
our results, including the possible effects of chemical disorder, electronic
inhomogeneity, and a competing phase.
