Theoretical investigation of Schottky-barrier diode noise performance in external resonant circuits

We report Monte Carlo simulations of electronic noise in heavily doped nanometric GaAs Schottky-barrier diodes (SBDs) recently proposed as promising devices for THz applications. We consider a SBD operating in series with a parallel output resonant circuit when a high-frequency large-signal voltage is applied to the whole system. Significant modifications of the noise spectrum with respect to the diode subjected to a constant applied voltage are found to occur in the THz-region. To interpret such behaviour, we have developed a simple analytical approach based on the static I–V and C–V relations as well as on the series resistance of the SBD.