Orbital selective commensurate modulations of the local density of states in ScV6Sn6 probed by nuclear spins

The kagome network is a unique platform that harbors a diversity of special electronic states due to its inherent band structure features comprising Dirac cones, van Hove singularities, and flat bands. Some kagome-based metals have recently been found to exhibit favorable properties, including superconductivity, charge order, and signatures of an anomalous Hall effect. The kagome system ScV6Sn6 is a promising candidate for studying the emergence of an unconventional charge order and accompanying effects. We use 51V nuclear magnetic resonance to explore the local properties of the charge ordered phase in single crystalline ScV6Sn6, aided by density functional theory. We show the local charge symmetry of V to reflect a commensurate modulation with $${{\bf{q}}}=\left(\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3}\right)$$ q = 1 3 , 1 3 , 1 3 , the density of states to drop by about a factor of $$\sqrt{2}$$ 2 during the phase transition, and an unusual orientation dependent change in the shift splitting symmetry to reveal orbital selective modulations of the local density of states.