The ultra-fast dynamics of superconducting vortices harbors rich physics generic to nonequilibrium collective systems. The phenomenon of flux-flow instability (FFI), however, prevents its exploration and sets practical limits for the use of vortices in various applications. To suppress the FFI, a superconductor should exhibit a rarely achieved combination of properties: weak volume pinning, close-to-depairing critical current, and fast heat removal from heated electrons. Here, we demonstrate experimentally ultra-fast vortex motion at velocities of 10–15 km s⁻¹ in a directly written Nb-C superconductor with a close-to-perfect edge barrier. The spatial evolution of the FFI is described using the edge-controlled FFI model, implying a chain of FFI nucleation points along the sample edge and their development into self-organized Josephson-like junctions (vortex rivers). In addition, our results offer insights into the applicability of widely used FFI models and suggest Nb-C to be a good candidate material for fast single-photon detectors.

超导涡旋的超快动力学蕴藏着非平衡集体系统所共有的丰富物理现象。然而，通量流不稳定（FFI）现象阻碍了它的探索，并为涡流在各种应用中的使用设置了实际限制。为了抑制 FFI，超导体应该表现出罕见的性能组合：弱体积钉扎、接近脱配的临界电流以及从受热电子中快速散热。在这里，我们通过实验证明了在具有接近完美边缘势垒的直写 Nb-C 超导体中以 10–15 km s ^-1的速度进行超快涡旋运动。 FFI 的空间演化是使用边缘控制的 FFI 模型来描述的，这意味着沿着样本边缘的 FFI 成核点链及其发展成自组织的约瑟夫森式结点（涡河）。此外，我们的结果提供了对广泛使用的 FFI 模型的适用性的见解，并表明 Nb-C 是快速单光子探测器的良好候选材料。