Suppression of partition noise in infrared hot-electron transistors

Abstract

The noise properties of hot electrons in three different infrared hot-electron transistors have been characterized. We observed that there is a reduction of generation-recombination noise after the hot electrons passed through the built-in electron energy filters. The magnitude of the reduction depends on the band structure of the filters, and can be attributed to the lack of partition noise associated with the quantum transport of the hot electrons. Based on this observation, low noise infrared hot-electron transistors can be designed using appropriate filters.