Anisotropic nematic fluctuations above the ferroquadrupolar transition in TmVO4

TmVO$_4$ exhibits ferroquadrupolar order below 2.15 K with a well-isolated non-Kramer's ground state doublet and is a model system to understand Ising nematic order. We present $^{51}$V nuclear magnetic resonance data as a function of field orientation in a single crystal cut by focused ion beam into an ellipsoidal shape to eliminate demagnetization field inhomogeneity. We can independently measure both the quadrupolar and magnetic fluctuations and find that they exhibit strong anisotropy both out-of-plane and in-plane. Second order Zeeman effects dominate the in-plane response, and we find evidence that the ordering temperature is enhanced by in-plane fields.