Tunnel junctions use quantum tunneling to pass electrons through a barrier, allowing for fast electronic devices and efficient photovoltaic cells. The wave-particle duality theory explains how electrons can pass through the barrier at high frequencies. Tunnel junctions are used in electronics, clean energy research, and scientific instruments.
A tunnel junction is a point where two different electrically conductive or magnetic materials meet, usually separated by a thin barrier, for the purpose of passing electrons from one material to the other. The defining aspect of a tunnel junction is that, mechanically speaking, the electrons are too weak to penetrate the junction barrier, but they do so anyway through a principle called quantum tunneling. Tunnel junctions are useful in many fast-acting electronic devices, such as flash memory chips, increasing the efficiency of photovoltaic cells, and building extremely fast diodes that can react to higher frequencies than would otherwise be possible.
The principle of quantum tunneling, on which the operation of all tunnel junctions is based, is established on the theories of quantum mechanics. These theories state that even if, mathematically, an electron lacks the active mechanical energy to pass through the stored energy of a given barrier, the chances of a given electron breaching the barrier, while extremely small, are not zero. Since passing an electron through an obviously upper barrier is not normally mathematically or mechanically possible, but exists nonetheless, scientists have speculated that the electron achieves this as a result of a quantum mechanical theory called wave-particle duality.
The wave-particle duality theory states that all forms of matter, electricity in the case of a tunnel junction, exist simultaneously in two separate states. First, matter exists as a particle, such as an electron, that has a certain amount of active mechanical energy due to its mass and velocity. Second, matter exists as a waveform, operating and vibrating at a certain frequency.
As a result of wave-particle duality, an electron may not have the active mechanical energy to pass through a barrier; however, at a high enough frequency, it may have enough waveform energy to pass through the barrier. At a high enough frequency, the energy of an electron’s waveform can literally vibrate through the low-frequency barrier in an action called quantum tunneling. Due to the very high frequencies involved in quantum tunneling, the actions of the electrons involved occur extremely rapidly, which allows a device using a tunnel junction to operate extremely rapidly. This speed can then be used to speed up the operation of electrical equipment or to sense, identify and react to fast-moving forms of energy such as light waves.
In practice, tunnel junctions are mostly used in electronics. They provide the speed of reading and writing to and from flash memory, enable the production of extremely fast oscillators that increase the operating speed of computers, and enable the construction of scientific instruments capable of sensing and operating in high radiation environments.
The tunnel junction can also be used to interact with light energy and is involved in a number of light-related research projects. In clean energy research, it is being incorporated into highly efficient solar cells, where its high operating frequencies allow it to capture more energy than conventional cells from the same amount of light. It is also used in conjunction with superconductors to produce detectors similar to those used in digital cameras, with the exception that they can see ultraviolet, X-rays, and many other types of waveform energies and radiations.
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