  We demonstrate control of the thermal hysteresis in superconducting
constrictions by adding a resistive shunt. In order to prevent thermal
relaxation oscillations, the shunt resistor is placed in close vicinity of the
constriction, making the inductive current-switching time smaller than the
thermal equilibration time. We investigate the current-voltage characteristics
of the same constriction with and without the shunt-resistor. The widening of
the hysteresis-free temperature range is explained on the basis of a simple
model.
