RESONANT-TUNNELING IN THE PRESENCE OF A 2-LEVEL FLUCTUATOR - LOW-FREQUENCY NOISE

We study current noise in a double-barrier resonant-tunneling structure due to dynamic defects that switch states because of their interaction with a thermal bath. The time fluctuations of the resonant level result in low-frequency noise, the characteristics of which depend on the relative strengths of the electron escape rate, the coupling to the defects, and the defect's switching rate. If the number of defects is sufficiently large, the noise is of the 1/f type. It is shown that the temperature dependence of the noise intensity becomes more pronounced as the spacer gets thicker.