Hot spot formation in electron-doped PCCO nanobridges

We have investigated the transport properties of optimally doped Pr2-xCexCuO4-δ (PCCO) nanobridges with width down to 100 nm. The critical current density of the nanobridges approaches the Ginzburg-Landau theoretical limit, which demonstrates nanostructures with properties close to the as-grown films. The current voltage characteristics are hysteretic with a sharp voltage switch, of the order of a few millivolts, that we interpret with the occurrence of a hot spot formation. The values of the retrapping current and the voltage switch obtained by modeling the heat transport in the nanobridges are very close to the experimental ones. This feature, together with the extremely short recombination times, make PCCO nanostructures attractive candidates for ultrafast single photon detectors.