Abstract
In the present paper it is recalled why the ion bombardement of a superconductor by energetic heavy ions is expected to lead to a better understanding of nonequilibrium superconductivity and of solid-ion interaction in the high electronic stopping power range. An experiment has been performed which showed the possibility of detecting heavy ion ( 129 Xe 50+ of total energy 3.2 GeV) by the transient response of a 2500 A thick superconducting niobium film. The voltage pulse due to a single ion impact is characterized by a rise time less than 150 ps (resolution limit of the electronic detection system) and by two decay time constants. The shorter one (2ns at 4.6K) reflects the phonon escape time out of the film. The longer one (55ns at 4.6K) seems associated to the phonons excited in the substrate.
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