Flux line lattice melting and the formation of a coherent quasiparticle Bloch state in the ultraclean URu2Si2 superconductor.
We find that in the ultraclean heavy-fermion superconductor URu(2)Si(2) (T_{c0}=1.45 K) a distinct flux line lattice melting transition with outstanding characters occurs well below the mean-field upper critical fields. We show that a very small number of carriers with heavy mass in this system results in exceptionally large thermal fluctuations even at sub-Kelvin temperatures, which are witnessed by a sizable region of the flux line liquid phase. The uniqueness is further highlighted by an enhancement of the quasiparticle mean free path below the melting transition, implying a possible formation of a quasiparticle Bloch state in the periodic flux line lattice.
Okazaki
R
R
Department of Physics, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. okazaki@scphys.kyoto-u.ac.jp
Kasahara
Y
Y
Shishido
H
H
Konczykowski
M
M
Behnia
K
K
Haga
Y
Y
Matsuda
T D
TD
Onuki
Y
Y
Shibauchi
T
T
Matsuda
Y
Y