Semiclassical theory of shot noise and its suppression in a conductor with deterministic scattering

Abstract

A scattering theory for nonequilibrium current noise in a degenerate electron gas at finite temperature is developed, based on classical kinetic equations for the first two moments of the fluctuating distribution function F(r,p,t). The result is a relation between the low-frequency-noise spectral density P and the classical transmission-probability distribution function T(r,p). At zero temperature, P=0 if and only if T takes on exclusively the values 0 and 1. Shot noise is thus suppressed by (classical) deterministic scattering in a degenerate electron gas.