Question

For a tunnel diode, when ‘p’ is probability that carrier crosses the barrier, ’e’ is energy,’w’ is width.

(a) p ∝ e^(-A*e*w)

(b) p ∝ 1/ e^(-A*e*w)

(c) p ∝ e^(A*e*w)

(d) p ∝ 1/e^(A*e*w)

The question was posed to me in an interview for internship.

Origin of the question is Tunnel Diodes and its Characteristics in portion Semiconductor-Diode Characteristics of Electronic Devices & Circuits

Answer 1

Correct option is (a) p ∝ e^(-A*e*w)

To elaborate: The carrier jump occurs without any loss of energy due to small depletion layer. The probability of the carrier to jump across a barrier depends on the energy and width of the band. This variess exponentially for a given carrier.