We identify a new shot noise suppression mechanism in a thin (~100 nm) heterostructure avalanche photodiode. In the low-gain regime the shot noise is suppressed due to temporal correlations within amplified current pulses. We demonstrate in a Monte Carlo simulation that the effective excess noise factors can be <1, and reconcile the apparent conflict between theory and experiments. This shot noise suppression mechanism is independent of known mechanisms such as Coulomb interaction, or reflection at heterojunction interfaces.
@article{arxiv.physics/0510051,
title = {Shot Noise Suppression in Avalanche Photodiodes},
author = {Feng Ma and Shuling Wang and Joe C. Campbell},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0510051},
year = {2015}
}