Flux Line Lattice Melting and the Formation of a Coherent Quasiparticle Bloch State in the Ultraclean URu_2Si_2 Superconductor

摘要

We find that in the ultraclean heavy-fermion superconductor URu_2Si_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.