Effect of electron-phonon scattering on shot noise in nanoscale junctions

We investigate the effect of electron-phonon inelastic scattering on shot noise in nanoscale junctions in the regime of quasiballistic transport. We predict that when the local thermal energy of the junction is larger than its lowest vibrational mode energy eV(c), the inelastic contribution to shot noise (conductance) increases (decreases) with bias as V (sqrt[V]). The corresponding Fano factor thus increases as sqrt[V]. We also show that the inelastic contribution to the Fano factor saturates with increasing thermal current exchanged between the junction and the bulk electrodes to a value which, for V >> V(c), is independent of bias. These predictions can be readily tested experimentally.