Abstract

Fluctuations of the current at the contacts of a small phase-coherent conductor are compared with fluctuations of the intensity at the contacts of a photon wave guide [1]. The electronic conductor and the photon wave guide are viewed as a target at which carriers incident from the reservoirs (balck body radiators) connected to the contacts are reflected or transmitted into another reservoir. The spatial separation between reservoirs is assumed to be so small that transmission from one contact to another is phase-coherent. We are interested in the fluctuations of the current and the intensity away from their steady state average. Of principal interest are properties of the fluctuations which are directly related to the statistics of indistinguishable quantum particles. Such effects are a consequence of the symmetry of the wave-function under exchange of two carriers. Experiments with photon beams in free space were pionered by Hanburry Brown and Twiss almost forty years ago. In contrast to experiments with beams of light or beams of electrons in free space, experiments in conductors or wave guides have the advantage that a much higher degree of occupation of available states can be achieved. At kT=0 in a conductor, all states below the Fermi energy are occupied. Despite this advantage a clear demonstration of quantum statistical effects in conductors is lacking.

© 1993 Optical Society of America