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 barrier 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 band 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 Physics. [S1063-777X(00)00811-2].