303 research outputs found
Size effects on generation recombination noise
We carry out an analytical theory of generation-recombination noise for a two
level resistor model which goes beyond those presently available by including
the effects of both space charge fluctuations and diffusion current. Finite
size effects are found responsible for the saturation of the low frequency
current spectral density at high enough applied voltages. The saturation
behaviour is controlled essentially by the correlations coming from the long
range Coulomb interaction. It is suggested that the saturation of the current
fluctuations for high voltage bias constitutes a general feature of
generation-recombination noise.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure. To appear in Applied Physics Letters (2 December
2002 issue
Fractional exclusion statistics and shot noise in ballistic conductors
We study the noise properties of ballistic conductors with carriers
satisfying fractional exclusion statistics. To test directly the nature of
exclusion statistics we found that systems under weakly degenerate conditions
should be considered. Typical of these systems is that the chemical potential,
is in the thermal range . In these conditions the noise
properties under current saturation are found to depend upon the statistical
parameter , displaying suppressed shot noise for , and
enhanced shot noise for , according to the attractive or repulsive
nature of the carrier exclusion statistics.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Shot Noise in Linear Macroscopic Resistors
We report on a direct experimental evidence of shot noise in a linear
macroscopic resistor. The origin of the shot noise comes from the fluctuation
of the total number of charge carriers inside the resistor associated with
their diffusive motion under the condition that the dielectric relaxation time
becomes longer than the dynamic transit time. Present results show that neither
potential barriers nor the absence of inelastic scattering are necessary to
observe shot noise in electronic devices.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure
Shot-noise suppression in Schottky barrier diodes
We give a theoretical interpretation of the noise properties of Schottky
barrier diodes based on the role played by the long range Coulomb interaction.
We show that at low bias Schottky diodes display shot noise because the
presence of the depletion layer makes negligible the effects of the Coulomb
interaction on the current fluctuations. When the device passes from barrier to
flat band conditions, the Coulomb interaction becomes active, thus introducing
correlation between different current fluctuations. Therefore, the cross-over
between shot and thermal noise represents the suppression due to long range
Coulomb interaction of the otherwise full shot-noise. Similar ideas can be used
to interpret the noise properties of others semiconductor devices.Comment: 3 page
Fluctuations of Complex Networks: Electrical Properties of Single Protein Nanodevices
We present for the first time a complex network approach to the study of the
electrical properties of single protein devices. In particular, we consider an
electronic nanobiosensor based on a G-protein coupled receptor. By adopting a
coarse grain description, the protein is modeled as a complex network of
elementary impedances. The positions of the alpha-carbon atoms of each amino
acid are taken as the nodes of the network. The amino acids are assumed to
interact electrically among them. Consequently, a link is drawn between any
pair of nodes neighboring in space within a given distance and an elementary
impedance is associated with each link. The value of this impedance can be
related to the physical and chemical properties of the amino acid pair and to
their relative distance. Accordingly, the conformational changes of the
receptor induced by the capture of the ligand, are translated into a variation
of its electrical properties. Stochastic fluctuations in the value of the
elementary impedances of the network, which mimic different physical effects,
have also been considered. Preliminary results concerning the impedance
spectrum of the network and its fluctuations are presented and discussed for
different values of the model parameters.Comment: 16 Pages and 10 Figures published in SPIE Proceedings of the II
International Symposium on Fluctuation and Noise, Maspalomas,Gran
Canaria,Spain, 25-28 May 200
Modelization of Thermal Fluctuations in G Protein-Coupled Receptors
We simulate the electrical properties of a device realized by a G protein
coupled receptor (GPCR), embedded in its membrane and in contact with two
metallic electrodes through which an external voltage is applied. To this
purpose, recently, we have proposed a model based on a coarse graining
description, which describes the protein as a network of elementary impedances.
The network is built from the knowledge of the positions of the C-alpha atoms
of the amino acids, which represent the nodes of the network. Since the
elementary impedances are taken depending of the inter-nodes distance, the
conformational change of the receptor induced by the capture of the ligand
results in a variation of the network impedance. On the other hand, the
fluctuations of the atomic positions due to thermal motion imply an impedance
noise, whose level is crucial to the purpose of an electrical detection of the
ligand capture by the GPCR. Here, in particular, we address this issue by
presenting a computational study of the impedance noise due to thermal
fluctuations of the atomic positions within a rhodopsin molecule. In our model,
the C-alpha atoms are treated as independent, isotropic, harmonic oscillators,
with amplitude depending on the temperature and on the position within the
protein (alpha-helix or loop). The relative fluctuation of the impedance is
then calculated for different temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, Proceeding of the 18-th International Conference
on Fluctuations and Noise, 19-23 September 2005, Salamanca, Spain -minor
proofreadings
Shot-noise anomalies in nondegenerate elastic diffusive conductors
We present a theoretical investigation of shot-noise properties in
nondegenerate elastic diffusive conductors. Both Monte Carlo simulations and
analytical approaches are used. Two new phenomena are found: (i) the display of
enhanced shot noise for given energy dependences of the scattering time, and
(ii) the recovery of full shot noise for asymptotic high applied bias. The
first phenomenon is associated with the onset of negative differential
conductivity in energy space that drives the system towards a dynamical
electrical instability in excellent agreement with analytical predictions. The
enhancement is found to be strongly amplified when the dimensionality in
momentum space is lowered from 3 to 2 dimensions. The second phenomenon is due
to the suppression of the effects of long range Coulomb correlations that takes
place when the transit time becomes the shortest time scale in the system, and
is common to both elastic and inelastic nondegenerate diffusive conductors.
These phenomena shed new light in the understanding of the anomalous behavior
of shot noise in mesoscopic conductors, which is a signature of correlations
among different current pulses.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Impact of nonlocal interactions in dissipative systems: towards minimal-sized localized structures
In order to investigate the size limit on spatial localized structures in a
nonlinear system, we explore the impact of linear nonlocality on their domains
of existence and stability. Our system of choice is an optical microresonator
containing an additional metamaterial layer in the cavity, allowing the
nonlocal response of the material to become the dominating spatial process. In
that case, our bifurcation analysis shows that this nonlocality imposes a new
limit on the width of localized structures going beyond the traditional
diffraction limit.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Stationary states and phase diagram for a model of the Gunn effect under realistic boundary conditions
A general formulation of boundary conditions for semiconductor-metal contacts
follows from a phenomenological procedure sketched here. The resulting boundary
conditions, which incorporate only physically well-defined parameters, are used
to study the classical unipolar drift-diffusion model for the Gunn effect. The
analysis of its stationary solutions reveals the presence of bistability and
hysteresis for a certain range of contact parameters. Several types of Gunn
effect are predicted to occur in the model, when no stable stationary solution
exists, depending on the value of the parameters of the injecting contact
appearing in the boundary condition. In this way, the critical role played by
contacts in the Gunn effect is clearly stablished.Comment: 10 pages, 6 Post-Script figure
Coupled-mode theory for photonic band-gap inhibition of spatial instabilities
We study the inhibition of pattern formation in nonlinear optical systems using intracavity photonic crystals. We consider mean-field models for singly and doubly degenerate optical parametric oscillators. Analytical expressions for the new (higher) modulational thresholds and the size of the "band gap" as a function of the system and photonic crystal parameters are obtained via a coupled-mode theory. Then, by means of a nonlinear analysis, we derive amplitude equations for the unstable modes and find the stationary solutions above threshold. The form of the unstable mode is different in the lower and upper parts of the band gap. In each part there is bistability between two spatially shifted patterns. In large systems stable wall defects between the two solutions are formed and we provide analytical expressions for their shape. The analytical results are favorably compared with results obtained from the full system equations. Inhibition of pattern formation can be used to spatially control signal generation in the transverse plane
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