Interactions between tunneling electrons and a variety of phonons have been previously reported in MIS tunnel junctions including zone boundary phonons, thek= 0 longitudinal optical phonon, and the B local‐mode phonon. We report here the observation of interactions between the tunneling electron and the local‐mode phonon associated with N inn‐type SiC and P, O, and perhaps C and C&sngbnd;O inn‐type Si. The data in SiC suggest that the interaction with the tunneling electrons arise from N substituted for Si atoms. The identification of the local modes in Si is based on agreement with infrared absorption measurements, by observation of at least two local‐mode peaks for each impurity, and a correlation between the strength of the interaction and the concentration of P and O impurities present in various crystals.