Elastic Tunneling: Electron Pathways Explained

[1msm]

Hello everyone,

here we have two types of electron tunneling paths of electrons.

as shown here, In an elastic tunneling the electron goes directly into metal2 with out
falling to Fermi level of metal2..?? or Is it going to fallback by radiating its energy..??

 

[ZapperZ]

I wouldn't say it will radiate energy. It will undergo the same processes as any other excited electrons in the metal, i.e. it will undergo electron-electron scattering, electron-ion scattering, electron-impurity scattering, etc.. etc. and then eventually lose that energy via those interactions.

Note that this is no different than an electron being excited by a photon having less energy than the work function of the metal. It stays in the empty states of the metal and undergoes these processes until it loses its energy.

Zz.