Noise insights into electronic transport

TL;DR

This paper discusses how measuring spontaneous current fluctuations, or noise, reveals hidden details of electronic transport in mesoscopic conductors like topological insulators and carbon nanotubes, offering insights beyond traditional response measurements.

Contribution

It introduces the paradigm of noise measurement as a tool to uncover hidden features of electronic transport in mesoscopic systems, contrasting with conventional response-based methods.

Findings

Noise measurements reveal hidden electronic features.

Spontaneous fluctuations provide insights into mesoscopic conductors.

Application to diverse systems like topological insulators and nanotubes.

Abstract

Typical experimental measurement is set up as a study of the system's response to a stationary external excitation. This approach considers any random fluctuation of the signal as spurious contribution which is to be eliminated via time-averaging or, equivalently, bandwidth reduction. Beyond that lies a conceptually different paradigm -- the measurement of the system's spontaneous fluctuations. The goal of this overview article is to demonstrate how current noise measurements bring insight into hidden features of electronic transport in various mesoscopic conductors, ranging from 2D topological insulators to individual carbon nanotubes.