  Electronic nematic phases are broadly characterized by spontaneously broken
rotational symmetry. Although they have been widely recognized in the context
of high temperature cuprates, bilayer ruthenates, and iron-based
superconductors, the focus so far has been exclusively on the uniform nematic
phase. Recently, however, it was proposed that on a square lattice a nematic
instability in the d-wave charge channel could lead to a spatially modulated
nematic state, where the modulation vector q is determined by the relative
location of the Fermi level to the van Hove singularity. Interestingly, this
finite-q nematic phase has also been identified as an additional leading
instability that is as strong as the superconducting instability near the onset
of spin density wave order. Here we study the electrical conductivity tensor in
the modulated nematic phase for a general modulation vector. Our results can be
used to identify modulated nematic phases in correlated materials.
