Size effects on the quenching to the normal state in YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin film superconductors

To probe the quenching mechanisms under high current densities, current-voltage curves have been measured in YBa2Cu3O7-delta thin film microbridges with widths lower than the thermal diffusion length. This condition was obtained by using microbridge widths under 100 micrometers and stepped ramps of one millisecond step duration. Whereas the flux-flow resistivity is found to be microbridge-width independent, strong width dependence of the quenching current density is observed. These results provide a direct experimental demonstration that for high current densities varying in the millisecond range the transition to a highly dissipative state is due to self heating driven by "conventional" (non-singular) flux flow effects.