On the thermal mechanism of the microwave breakdown of high-temperature superconducting films

Theoretical arguments attesting on the thermal nature of the microwave breakdown of high-temperature superconducting films are compared with experimental data. It is shown that the spatial-time picture of the observed breakdown is connected with the film overheating near defects of dimensions 10-5-10-6 m. The further increasing of the breakdown amplitude can be restricted by the drastic decreasing of the energy of critical vortices initiating the breakdown