In a solid at room temperature, atoms are held together by electromagnetic forces, including the Coulomb's force between electrons and nuclei. Quantum tunneling is a phenomenon where a particle can pass through a potential barrier even if it doesn't have sufficient energy to overcome the barrier classically. However, in the case of atoms in a solid at room temperature, quantum tunneling does not typically cause atoms to overcome the Coulomb's force and escape their lattice positions.
The reason for this lies in the relative strength of the forces involved. The Coulomb's force between charged particles in an atom, such as electrons and nuclei, is generally much stronger than the forces associated with quantum tunneling. The forces holding atoms in a solid lattice, such as the electromagnetic forces between adjacent atoms, are typically much larger than the energies involved in tunneling.
While quantum tunneling is a fundamental quantum mechanical phenomenon, its significance is usually more pronounced for particles with low mass, such as electrons, and when encountering thin or low-energy potential barriers. In the case of atoms in a solid, the Coulomb's forces are strong enough to keep the atoms bound to their lattice positions, and the probabilities of tunneling through the barriers imposed by these forces are generally extremely low at room temperature.
However, it's important to note that there can be specific situations where tunneling does play a role in certain phenomena within solids. For example, in some cases, electrons can tunnel between neighboring atoms or across energy barriers, leading to phenomena like quantum mechanical tunneling conductivity or tunneling magnetoresistance. These effects are typically observed at low temperatures or in specialized systems where the conditions allow for a more significant contribution of tunneling.