Field induced density wave in the heavy fermion compound CeRhIn5

We will present evidence for a magnetic field induced phase-transition to a state akin to a density-wave (DW) in the heavy fermion superconductor CeRhIn$_5$. The DW state is signaled by a hysteretic anomaly in the in-plane resistivity accompanied by the appearance of non-linear electrical transport at high magnetic fields ($>$27T), which are distinctive characteristics of density-wave states. The differential resistance dV/dI is strongly suppressed by currents in excess of an critical electric field E$_c$ 15mV/cm, which would be a typical value for depinning thresholds in incommensurate density waves such as NbSe$_3$ or TaS$_3$. Intriguingly, the out-of-plane resistivity as well as the magnetic torque remain unaffected by the transition. The untypically large hysteresis enables us to directly investigate the Fermi surface of a supercooled electronic system and to clearly associate a Fermi surface reconstruction with the transition: additional frequencies suddenly appear at the transition in Shubnikov-de Haas measurements. Key to our observation is the fabrication of single crystal microstructures with $\mu m^2$ cross-sections, which are found to be highly sensitive to phase transitions involving small portions of the Fermi surface.