  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.
