Kagome metals such as CsV₃Sb₅ are thought to host intertwined correlated states, possibly including pair-density waves. Using sub-kelvin scanning tunnelling microscopy with high energy resolution, an international team has mapped the material's electronic states through the superconducting gap.

Quasiparticle interference analysis, supported by ab initio and symmetry calculations, reveals an isotropic gap on the Fermi surfaces derived from one set of vanadium d orbitals, constraining the possible gap symmetries. The data show no sign of an extra pair-density-wave modulation within the experiment's sensitivity, and missing scattering vectors point to sensitivity to the sublattice character of the electrons. QMAT's Junze Deng and Päivi Törmä of Aalto University co-authored the study with researchers at Yale, Princeton, DIPC and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids.

The preprint has not yet been peer reviewed.

Image: QMAT