  Metals containing Ce often show strong electron correlations due to the
proximity of the 4f state to the Fermi energy, leading to strong coupling with
the conduction electrons. This coupling typically induces a variety of
competing ground states, including heavy-fermion metals, magnetism and
unconventional superconductivity. The d-wave superconductivity in CeTMIn5
(TM=Co, Rh, Ir) has attracted significant interest due to its qualitative
similarity to the cuprate high-Tc superconductors. Here, we show evidence for a
field induced phase-transition to a state akin to a density-wave (DW) in the
heavy fermion CeRhIn5, existing in proximity to its unconventional
superconductivity. 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 the distinctive
characteristics of density-wave states. The unusually 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.
Key to our observation is the fabrication of single crystal microstructures,
which are found to be highly sensitive to "subtle" phase transitions involving
only small portions of the Fermi surface. Such subtle order might be a common
feature among correlated electron systems, and its clear observation adds a new
perspective on the similarly subtle CDW state in the cuprates.
