Which mechanism enables current flow through a tunnel diode despite a thick depletion region present when heavily doped?

💡 Explanation

With heavy doping of both the P and N sides, Fermi level aligns such that the tunnel barrier width is very narrow. Quantum mechanical tunneling allows electrons to tunnel through potential energy barriers because the carrier wavefunction extends into classically forbidden regions. Therefore tunneling occurs rather than thermionic emission, ohmic conduction, or avalanche breakdown which require thermal energy or electric field.

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