Current fluctuations in degenerate non-equilibrium systems

Noise characteristics of degenerate electron gas in two- or three-dimensional channels at moderate/high electric fields are investigated theoreticaly at densities sufficient for the electron temperature approximation to work. Current fluctuations are sensitive to additional correlation of occupancies of one-electron states created by inter-electron (e-e) collisions in non-equilibrium. Specificity of degenerate systems lies in the fact that the most non-trivial part of correlation is intrinsically of a two-particle nature. The degeneracy effects violate the macroscopic noise-response relations valid for Boltzmann's statistics. The method is worked out for calculating the source of correlation of the electron energies as a function of the applied electric field for different electron-lattice scattering mechanisms.