Optical and electrical enhancement of the propagation time in superconducting transmission lines

optical pulse energy and current controlled delays in the propagation time of electrical picosecond pulses in YBa2Cu3O7-x (YBCO) superconducting transmission lines have been investigated by using picosecond optoelectronic techniques. Electrical pulses, generated using silicon-on-sapphire photoconductive switches driven by a mode-locked Nd:YAG pumped dye laser, are propagated on superconducting transmission lines. The lines are patterned in the geometry of a microstrip and illuminated by the frequency-doubled output of an Nd:YAG laser. The measured propagation time shows a squared dependence on the optical pulse energy. For the applied current dependence, the delay through the line is tuned by 16 psec by varying the bias from zero to 190 mA. The results are in good agreement with the Ginzburg-Landau theory for the case of a uniform current density through a thin film