Orbital ordering and fluctuations in a kagome superconductor CsV3Sb5

Abstract

Recently, competing electronic instabilities, including superconductivity and density-wave-like order, have been discovered in vanadium-based kagome metals AV3Sb5 (A = K, Rb, Cs) with a nontrivial band topology. This finding stimulates considerable interest to study the interplay of these competing electronic orders and possible exotic excitations in the superconducting state. Here, we performed 51V and 133Cs nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on a CsV3Sb5 single crystal to clarify the nature of density-wave-like transition in these kagome superconductors. A first-order structural transition is unambiguously revealed below Ts ∼ 94 K by observing the sudden splitting of Knight shift in 51V NMR spectrum. Moreover, combined with 133Cs NMR spectrum, the present result confirms a three-dimensional structural modulation. By further analyzing the anisotropy of Knight shift and 1/T1T at 51V nuclei, we proposed that the orbital order is the primary electronic order induced by the first-order structural transition, which is supported by further analysis on electric field gradient at 51V nuclei. In addition, the evidence for possible orbital fluctuations is also revealed above Ts. The present work sheds light on a rich orbital physics in kagome superconductors AV3Sb5.