Study of dissipative intermediate state of a reentrant thin-film superconductor

We analyse the current-voltage (I–V) characteristics of a thin-film sample of the ferromagnetic superconductor ErRh₄B₄ within a simple heating approximation. The results demonstrate that the salient features of the experimental nonlinearI–V characteristics observed in the dissipative intermediate resistance state can be readily understood within the framework of this approximation. The magnitude of the thermal boundary conductance of the interface between the film and its thermal environment is found to be typically of the same order as that generally observed during Kapitza-like heat transfer between solids, suggesting that the strength of the thermal coupling of the film to the substrate dominates the electrical behavior of a reentrant thin-film superconductor.