IS THE REGIME WITH SHOT NOISE SUPPRESSION BY A FACTOR 1/3 ACHIEVABLE IN SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES WITH MESOSCOPIC DIMENSIONS?

We discuss the possibility of diffusive conduction and thus of suppression of shot noise by a factor 1/3 in mesoscopic semiconductor devices with two-dimensional and one-dimensional potential disorder, for which existing experimental data do not provide a conclusive result. On the basis of our numerical analysis, we conclude that it is quite difficult to achieve diffusive transport over a reasonably wide parameter range, unless the device dimensions are increased up to the macroscopic scale where, however, shot noise disappears because the device length exceeds the Debye length. In addition, in the case of one-dimensional disorder, some mechanism capable of mode-mixing has to be present in order to reach or even approach the diffusive regime.