Colossal c-Axis Response and Lack of Rotational Symmetry Breaking within the Kagome Planes of the CsV_{3}Sb_{5} Superconductor.

The kagome materials AV_{3}Sb_{5} (A=K, Rb, Cs) host an intriguing interplay between unconventional superconductivity and charge-density waves. Here, we investigate CsV_{3}Sb_{5} by combining high-resolution thermal-expansion, heat-capacity, and electrical resistance under strain measurements. We directly unveil that the superconducting and charge-ordered states strongly compete, and that this competition is dramatically influenced by tuning the crystallographic c axis.

Precursor region with full phonon softening above the charge-density-wave phase transition in 2H-TaSe.

Research on charge-density-wave (CDW) ordered transition-metal dichalcogenides continues to unravel new states of quantum matter correlated to the intertwined lattice and electronic degrees of freedom. Here, we report an inelastic x-ray scattering investigation of the lattice dynamics of the canonical CDW compound 2H-TaSe complemented by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional perturbation theory. Our results rule out the formation of a central-peak without full phonon softening for the CDW transition in 2H-TaSe and provide evidence for a novel precursor region above the CDW transition temperature T, which is characterized by an overdamped phonon mode and not detectable in our photoemission experiments.

An electronic nematic liquid in BaNiAs.

Understanding the organizing principles of interacting electrons and the emergence of novel electronic phases is a central endeavor of condensed matter physics. Electronic nematicity, in which the discrete rotational symmetry in the electron fluid is broken while the translational one remains unaffected, is a prominent example of such a phase. It has proven ubiquitous in correlated electron systems, and is of prime importance to understand Fe-based superconductors.