Probing the Vorticity in a Superconductor Rapidly Quenched from the Normal State

Topological defects such as vortices subsist for some time in a rapidly frozen superconducting film (W. H. Zurek, Phys. Rep. 276, 177, 1996). We propose to use as a probe of the vortex density the finite delay T _d, which, in narrow strips, exists between a current step and the voltage response. Technically, this amounts to driving a bridge into the localized hot-spot regime by means of a pump pulse (laser or electrical). Cooling of such films as epitaxial YBCO-on-MgO, or niobium-on-sapphire, requires only a few nanoseconds at low T. A time t later, a probe pulse is applied to measure T _d. The dependence t T _d is interpreted as a witness of the fossil vorticity, long after quenching into the zero-resistance regime.