Giant and anisotropic many-body spin–orbit tunability in a strongly correlated kagome magnet

Owing to the unusual geometry of kagome lattices—lattices made of corner-sharing triangles—their electrons are useful for studying the physics of frustrated, correlated and topological quantum electronic states^1–9. In the presence of strong spin–orbit coupling, the magnetic and electronic structures of kagome lattices are further entangled, which can lead to hitherto unknown spin–orbit phenomena. Here we use a combination of vector-magnetic-field capability and scanning tunnelling microscopy to elucidate the spin–orbit nature of the kagome ferromagnet Fe₃Sn₂ and explore the associated exotic correlated phenomena. We discover that a many-body electronic state from the kagome lattice couples strongly to the vector field with three-dimensional anisotropy, exhibiting a magnetization-driven giant nematic (two-fold-symmetric) energy shift. Probing the fermionic quasi-particle interference reveals consistent spontaneous nematicity—a clear indication of electron correlation—and vector magnetization is capable of altering this state, thus controlling the many-body electronic symmetry. These spin-driven giant electronic responses go well beyond Zeeman physics and point to the realization of an underlying correlated magnetic topological phase. The tunability of this kagome magnet reveals a strong interplay between an externally applied field, electronic excitations and nematicity, providing new ways of controlling spin–orbit properties and exploring emergent phenomena in topological or quantum materials^10–12.