No Arabic abstract
We have measured the shot noise in a quantum point contact (QPC) fabricated by using InGaAs/InGaAsP heterostructure, whose conductance can be electrically tuned by the gate voltages. The reduced shot noise is observed when the QPC conductance equals to N(2e^2/h) (N=4, 5, and 6), which is the direct experimental evidence of the coherent quantized channel formation in the QPC. The deviation of the observed Fano factor from the theory is explained by the electron heating effect generated at the QPC.
We study the low frequency current correlations of an individual single-walled carbon nanotube at liquid He temperature. We have distinguished two physical regimes -- zero dimensional quantum dot and one dimensional quantum wire -- in terms of an energy spacing from the finite tube length in both differential conductance and shot noise measurements. In a one dimensional wire regime, we observed a highly suppressed shot noise from all measured tube devices, suggesting that electron-electron interactions play an important role.
We have derived a general formula describing current noise in multimode ballistic channels connecting source and drain electrodes with Fermi electron gas. In particular (at $eVgg k_{B}T$), the expression describes the nonequilibrium shot noise, which may be suppressed by both Fermi correlations and space charge screening. The general formula has been applied to an approximate model of a 2D nanoscale, ballistic MOSFET. At large negative gate voltages, when the density of electrons in the channel is small, shot noise spectral density $S_{I}(0)$ approaches the Schottky value $2eI$, where $I$ is the average current. However, at positive gate voltages, when the maximum potential energy in the channel is below the Fermi level of the electron source, the noise can be at least an order of magnitude smaller than the Schottky value, mostly due to Fermi effects.
We report the results of an analysis, based on a straightforward quantum-mechanical model, of shot noise suppression in a structure containing cascaded tunneling barriers. Our results exhibit a behavior that is in sharp contrast with existing semiclassical models for this particular type of structure, which predict a limit of 1/3 for the Fano factor as the number of barriers is increased. The origin of this discrepancy is investigated and attributed to the presence of localization on the length scale of the mean free path, as a consequence of the strictly 1-dimensional nature of disorder, which does not create mode mixing, while no localization appears in common semiclassical models. We expect localization to be indeed present in practical situations with prevalent 1-D disorder, and the existing experimental evidence appears to be consistent with such a prediction.
We study non-equilibrium differential conductance and current fluctuations in a single quantum point contact. The two-terminal electrical transport properties -- differential conductance and shot noise -- are measured at 1.5 K as a function of the drain-source voltage and the Schottky split-gate voltage. In differential conductance measurements, conductance plateaus appear at integer multiples of $2e^2/h$ when the drain-source voltage is small, and the plateaus evolve to a fractional of $2e^2/h$ as the drain-source voltage increases. Our shot noise measurements correspondingly show that the shot noise signal is highly suppressed at both the integer and the non-integer conductance plateaus. This main feature can be understood by the induced electrostatic potential model within a single electron picture. In addition, we observe the 0.7 structure in the differential conductance and the suppressed shot noise around 0.7 ($2e^2/h$); however, the previous single-electron model cannot explain the 0.7 structure and the noise suppression, suggesting that this characteristic relates to the electron-electron interactions.
We perform a numerical investigation of the effect of the disorder associated with randomly located impurities on shot noise in mesoscopic cavities. We show that such a disorder becomes dominant in determining the noise behavior when the amplitude of the potential fluctuations is comparable to the value of the Fermi energy and for a large enough density of impurities. In contrast to existing conjectures, random potential fluctuations are shown not to contribute to achieving the chaotic regime whose signature is a Fano factor of 1/4, but, rather, to the diffusive behavior typical of disordered conductors. In particular, the 1/4 suppression factor expected for a symmetric cavity can be achieved only in high-quality material, with a very low density of impurities. As the disorder strength is increased, a relatively rapid transition of the suppression factor from 1/4 to values typical of diffusive or quasi-diffusive transport is observed. Finally, on the basis of a comparison between a hard-wall and a realistic model of the cavity, we conclude that the specific details of the confinement potential have a minor influence on noise.