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 \({{\bf{q}}}=\left(\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3}\right)\) $\mathbf{q}=\left(\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3},\frac{1}{3}\right)$ , the density of states to drop by about a factor of \(\sqrt{2}\) $\sqrt{2}$ 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.