Thermalization and dynamics of high-energy quasiparticles in a superconducting nanowire probed by scanning critical current microscopy

FIG. 1: Experimental set-up. FIG. 2: Critical current as a function of bias voltage and injected power. FIG. 3: Scanning critical current microscopy. FIG. 4: Effect of the power injected by quasiparticles on the electronic temperature. FIG. 5: Relaxation dynamics of the injected quasiparticles. Figure S1. Determination of the superconducting gap by tunneling spectroscopy. Figure S2. Temperature dependence of the density of states. Figure S3. Current-voltage characteristics for different injection currents. Figure S4. Influence of the injection position on the critical current. Figure S5. Effect of the injected power on the electronic temperature for injection of quasiparticles in the dead-end strip and in the ground plane. Figure S6. Phonon contribution to the heat flow. Figure S7. Time evolution of the critical current. Figure S8. Relaxation dynamics of the injected quasiparticles for a different recombination time. Figure S9. Relaxation dynamics of the injected quasiparticles for different relaxation times. <br>