Noise and fluctuations in nanoscale gas flow

Abstract

We theoretically calculate the fundamental noise that is present in gaseous (dilute fluid) flow in channels in the classical and degenerate quantum regime, where the Fermi–Dirac and Bose–Einstein distribution must be considered. Results for both regimes are analogous to their electrical counterparts. The quantum noise is calculated for a two terminal system and is a complicated function of the thermal and shot noise with the thermal noise dominating when 2k B T ρ ≫ mΔP and vice versa. The cumulant generating function for mass flow, which generates all the higher order statistics related to our mass flow distribution, is also derived and is used to find an expression for the third cumulant of flow across a fluidic channel.