How spin-orbit interaction can cause electronic shot noise

¹ Instituut-Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden - P.O. Box 9506 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
² Institute of Theoretical Physics, Warsaw University Hoża 69, 00-681 Warsaw, Poland
³ Department of Physics, Konstanz University - D-78457 Konstanz, Germany

Received: 12 June 2006
Accepted: 7 August 2006

Abstract

The shot noise in the electrical current through a ballistic chaotic quantum dot with N-channel point contacts is suppressed for , because of the transition from stochastic scattering of quantum wave packets to deterministic dynamics of classical trajectories. The dynamics of the electron spin remains quantum mechanical in this transition, and can affect the electrical current via spin-orbit interaction. We explain how the role of the channel number N in determining the shot noise is taken over by the ratio of spin precession length and Fermi wavelength , and present computer simulations in a two-dimensional billiard geometry (Lyapunov exponent α, mean dwell time , point contact width W) to demonstrate the scaling of the shot noise in the regime .