Manifestation of the band structure of the semimetal in the tunneling conductance of a metal-insulator-semimetal junction

The contribution of the electron band of the semimetal to the differential conductance of a metal-insulator-semimetal tunnel junction is found. It is established that the tunneling conductance depends substantially on the bar rier parameters. The conductance curve exhibits a convexity with a maximum that in general does not correspond to the edges of the band or to a saddle point of the band, as has been proposed previously. It is shown that the b and structure is well resolved in the second derivative of the current with respect to the voltage, d(2)I/dV(2). (C) 2000 American Institute of Physic s. [S1063-777X(00)00811-2].