Shot Noise Suppression in Avalanche Photodiodes
arXiv:physics/0510051 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.176604
Abstract
We identify a new shot noise suppression mechanism in a thin (~100 nm) heterostructure avalanche photodiode. In the low-gain regime the shot noise is suppressed due to temporal correlations within amplified current pulses. We demonstrate in a Monte Carlo simulation that the effective excess noise factors can be <1, and reconcile the apparent conflict between theory and experiments. This shot noise suppression mechanism is independent of known mechanisms such as Coulomb interaction, or reflection at heterojunction interfaces.
Phys. Rev. Lett., accepted for publication