Optically detected transient thermal response of high T c epitaxial films

Abstract
A thermally induced transient absorption is found to accompany the unusually fast and sensitive bolometric response of thin YBa2Cu3O7 films. We utilize this optical signature as an internal thermometer to investigate thermal transients in both superconducting films and their undoped isomorphs. In the temperature range 10–300 K we find that the combination of a small thermal film mass and a large film‐substrate interface resistance results in large transient temperatures. Superconducting and nonsuperconducting films show comparable temperature rises and kinetics.