Noise in a Quantum Point Contact due to a Fluctuating Impurity Configuration

TL;DR

This paper presents a theoretical model explaining low-frequency noise in quantum point contacts as arising from fluctuating impurity configurations, linking noise characteristics to interference effects and transconductance.

Contribution

It introduces a new analytical model connecting impurity-induced interference to low-frequency noise in QPCs, highlighting the relationship with transconductance.

Findings

Derived an analytical formula for noise intensity in a two-mode QPC.

Found qualitative similarity between noise and transconductance squared.

Identified scenarios where noise is suppressed while transconductance is enhanced.

Abstract

We propose a theoretical model for the low-frequency noise observed in a quantum point contact (QPC) electrostatically defined in the 2D electron gas at a GaAs-AlGaAs interface. In such contacts electron scattering by soft impurity- or boundary potentials coherently splits an incoming wave function between different transverse modes. Interference between these modes have been suggested to explain observed non-linearities in the QPC-conductance. In this study we invoke the same mechanism and the time-dependent current due to soft dynamical impurity scattering in order to analyze the low-frequency (telegraph-like) noise which has been observed along with a nonlinear conductance. For the simplified case of a channel with two extended (current carrying) modes, a simple analytical formula for the noise intensity is derived. Generally we have found qualitative similarities between the noise and the square of the transconductance. Nevertheless, incidentally there may be situations when noise is suppressed but transconductance enhanced.