Fig. 3: Diffuse scattering and Monte Carlo modeling.

A (h 0 l) Diffuse maps at different temperatures. The yellow ellipse at 300 K highlights the DS along the M-L direction and demonstrates the uncorrelated charge scattering between kagome layers. No charge precursor is detected at the A point. B (h k 2) Diffuse maps as a function of temperature. The red hexagon underlines the 2D hexagonal shape of the DS. At 115 K, the anisotropic charge scattering concentrates at the M points (blue ellipse). C, D Zoom-in of the hexagonal DS at 293 K and 150 K. E (h k \(\frac{3}{2}\)) diffuse maps. The absence of scattering enclosed in between the yellow circumferences is a result of the small in-plane Fe displacements. F Temperature dependence of the DS as a function of temperature obtained from the integration of a region of interest (ROI) defined as red circles in (A). Inset, zoom-in of the DS between the temperature interval 105 K < T < 125 K. G Schematics of the model used for the MC simulations. \({{{\rm{c}}}}_{{i}^{{\prime} }s}\) describe the interaction energies taken into account in the Ising Hamiltonian. c₄ stands for the out-of-plane nearest-neighbor interaction. H Real-space configuration of the average structure of the Ge₁ included in the MC simulation. I, J (h k 2) and (h 0 l) DS maps obtained from MC, respectively, indexed according to the room temperature disordered unit cell.