Shot-noise statistics in diffusive conductors

Abstract

We study the full probability distribution of the charge transmitted through a mesoscopic diffusive conductor during a measurement time T. We have considered a semi-classical model, with an exclusion principle in a discretized single-particle phase-space. In the large T limit, numerical simulations show a universal probability distribution which agrees very well with the quantum mechanical prediction of Lee, Levitov and Yakovets [PRB {51} 4079 (1995)] for the charge counting statistics. Special attention is given to its third cumulant, including an analysis of finite size effects and of some experimental constraints for its accurate measurement.