Noiseless scattering states in a chaotic cavity

Abstract

Shot noise in a chaotic cavity (Lyapunov exponent $λ$, level spacing $δ$, linear dimension $L$), coupled by two $N$-mode point contacts to electron reservoirs, is studied as a measure of the crossover from stochastic quantum transport to deterministic classical transport. The transition proceeds through the formation of {\em fully} transmitted or reflected scattering states, which we construct explicitly. The fully transmitted states contribute to the mean current $\bar{I}$, but not to the shot-noise power $S$. We find that these noiseless transmission channels do not exist for $N\alt\sqrt{k_{F}L}$, where we expect the random-matrix result $S/2e\bar{I}=1/4$. For $N\agt\sqrt{k_{F}L}$ we predict a suppression of the noise $\propto (k_{F}L/N^{2})^{Nδ/π\hbarλ}$. This nonlinear contact dependence of the noise could help to distinguish ballistic chaotic scattering from random impurity scattering in quantum transport.