Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Investigations of Superconductivity and Charge Density Waves in Kagome Metal CsV₃Sb₅

The kagome lattice is notable for hosting interesting electronic correlations and a highly nontrivial band structure. CsV₃Sb₅ (CVS) is one such material, exhibiting both a kagome lattice and superconductivity, making it an attractive candidate for the study of the interplay between superconductivity and various electronic phenomena. Previous studies on CVS have reported the existence of a rotational symmetry breaking 4a₀ charge density wave (CDW) and a translational symmetry breaking 2a₀ × 2 a₀ CDW₁. Other work has shown the existence of a 4a₀/3 pair density wave visible in surface spectroscopy₂. Due to these features, CVS has undergone much study in recent years. In spite of this, the mechanism which generates the superconductivity and its connections to the other electronic phenomena are not well understood. We report scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM/S) experiments on CVS designed to probe the superconducting state with high energy resolution. We additionally study the charge density wave phase and quasiparticle interference to determine their connection to the superconductivity in the material.

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   2. Chen, H., et al. Nature 599, 222–228 (2021).