Alternate Approach to the Resolution of Tunneling Current Structure by Differentiation

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Abstract
Structure in the current‐voltage characteristics of tunneling junctions is very clearly revealed by displaying the second derivative of current with respect to voltage (d2i/dv2) as a function of junction bias. Equipment for doing this was first described by Thomas and Klein. This paper describes an alternate approach to the recovery of the first and second derivatives using a transistorized electronic circuit which, in addition to being compact and rather inexpensive, provides as good, if not better, resolution than that previously reported. The current‐voltage characteristic of a typical silicon tunnel diode at 4.2°K and the first and second derivatives of this characteristic using the apparatus described are given.