Direct determination of the electron-electron mean free path in diffusive mesoscopic samples using shot noise

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that finite-frequency shot noise measurements can be used to directly determine the electron-electron mean free path in diffusive mesoscopic conductors, providing a new experimental approach.

Contribution

The authors numerically analyze shot noise sensitivity to the ratio of sample length to electron-electron mean free path, enabling direct measurement of e in mesoscopic samples.

Findings

Numerical calculations of shot noise at arbitrary e/L ratios.

Shot noise sensitivity to e/L ratio demonstrated.

Potential for experimental determination of e using noise measurements.

Abstract

Using the 'drift-diffusion-Langevin' equation, we have recently shown that finite-frequency shot noise in diffusive mesoscopic conductors is very sensitive to the ratio $\gamma \equiv L/\lee$ between the sample length $L$ and the electron-electron mean free path $\lee$. In this work we present numerical calculations of the noise at arbitrary value of $\gamma$. If coupled with accurate noise measurements, the results presented here could serve as a new and independent way of determining $\lee$ in a given sample.