The degree of relative ordering accompanying a nonequilibrium phase transition in a system consisting of a thin film of high-temperature current-carrying superconductor and boiling coolant

From experimental implementations of thermal oscillations in the region of a nonequilibrium phase transition accompanying the Joule self-heating of thin films of high-temperature superconductors in boiling nitrogen, an estimate is made of the relative ordering of the system, using the S-theorem criterion. It is shown that, according to this criterion, the two-phase state of the system is more ordered than the homogeneous single-phase state. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.