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The class ofAV₃Sb₅(A=K, Rb, Cs) kagome metals hosts unconventional charge density wave states seemingly intertwined with their low temperature superconducting phases. The nature of the coupling between these two states and the potential presence of nearby, competing charge instabilities however remain open questions. This phenomenology is strikingly highlighted by the formation of two ‘domes’ in the superconducting transition temperature upon hole-doping CsV₃Sb₅. Here we track the evolution of charge correlations upon the suppression of long-range charge density wave order in the first dome and into the second of the hole-doped kagome superconductor CsV₃Sb_5−xSn_x. Initially, hole-doping drives interlayer charge correlations to become short-ranged with their periodicity diminished along the interlayer direction. Beyond the peak of the first superconducting dome, the parent charge density wave state vanishes and incommensurate, quasi-1D charge correlations are stabilized in its place. These competing, unidirectional charge correlations demonstrate an inherent electronic rotational symmetry breaking in CsV₃Sb₅, and reveal a complex landscape of charge correlations within its electronic phase diagram. Our data suggest an inherent 2k_fcharge instability and competing charge orders in theAV₃Sb₅class of kagome superconductors.

Strongly driven antiferromagnetic Mott insulators have the potential to exhibit exotic transient phenomena that are forbidden in thermal equilibrium. However, such far-from-equilibrium regimes, where conventional time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau descriptions fail, are experimentally challenging to prepare and to probe especially in solid state systems. Here we use a combination of time-resolved second harmonic optical polarimetry and coherent magnon spectroscopy to interrogaten-type photo-doping induced ultrafast magnetic order parameter dynamics in the antiferromagnetic Mott insulator Sr₂IrO₄. We find signatures of an unusual far-from-equilibrium critical regime in which the divergences of the magnetic correlation length and relaxation time are decoupled. This violation of conventional thermal critical behavior arises from the interplay of photo-doping and non-thermal magnon population induced demagnetization effects. Our findings, embodied in a non-equilibrium phase diagram, provide a blueprint for engineering the out-of-equilibrium properties of quantum matter, with potential applications to terahertz spintronics technologies.