Observation of anomalous amplitude modes in the kagome metal CsV₃Sb₅

The kagome lattice provides a fertile platform to explore novel symmetry-breaking states. Charge-density wave (CDW) instabilities have been recently discovered in a new kagome metal family, commonly considered to arise from Fermi-surface instabilities. Here we report the observation of Raman-active CDW amplitude modes in CsV₃Sb₅, which are collective excitations typically thought to emerge out of frozen soft phonons, although phonon softening is elusive experimentally. The amplitude modes strongly hybridize with other superlattice modes, imparting them with clear temperature-dependent frequency shift and broadening, rarely seen in other known CDW materials. Both the mode mixing and the large amplitude mode frequencies suggest that the CDW exhibits the character of strong electron-phonon coupling, a regime in which phonon softening can cease to exist. Our work highlights the importance of the lattice degree of freedom in the CDW formation and points to the complex nature of the mechanism.