Zener Tunneling Phenomena: Local or Non-Local Carriers?

[veejay]

in zener tunneling phenomena, are the carriers locally generated or non-locally generated?
i.e, should we assume the process as though it were generation of holes in the valence band and electrons in the conduction band?
i hope someone could shed some physics on this concept.
thanks.

 

[Gokul43201]

Actually, it's almost the other way round. Look at a tunnel-diode at small bias: The electrons from the conduction band of the n-type region tunnel across the junction, into the empty states in the valence band of the p-type region (remember, in a tunnel-diode, the Fermi energy does not lie within the band-gap).