Features of the tunneling of a system with an internal degree of freedom through a potential barrier

The tunneling of a quantum system with an internal degree of freedom through a potential barrier is considered. Based on the exact numerical solution to the nonstationary Schrödinger equation, the tunneling of a model two-particle system through a potential barrier is studied and the dependences of the tunneling transparency of the barrier on the parameters of the wave packet that describes the system at the initial moment are obtained. A sharp increase in the tunneling probability related to the formation of a long-lived quasibound state of the system in the barrier region is demonstrated. A simple analytical model of the tunneling of a system with an internal degree of freedom that allows for a qualitative interpretation of the main features of the tunneling is constructed.     

磁性隧道结自旋极化电子的隧穿特性

铁磁金属间通过中间层的自旋极化电子隧穿产生的磁性耦合,在自旋电子器件中有许多潜在的应用.考虑由一平面磁性势垒层隔开的两铁磁性金属电极构成的磁性隧道结,针对中间层形成的矩形势垒,在近自由电子模型的基础上,计算零偏压下的隧穿电导、自旋极化率和隧穿磁阻比率,分析势垒层特性、分子场强弱、分子场相对取向等对隧道结自旋极化电子隧穿特性的影响.计算结果对自旋电子器件的设计具有一定的指导意义.     

Tunneling in a “breathing” double well: Adiabatic and antiadiabatic limits and tunneling suppression

Tunneling in a piecewise harmonic potential coupled to a harmonic oscillator is considered by means of the path integral technique. The reduced propagator for the tunneling particle is calculated explicitly and the tunneling splitting is found in semiclassical approximation. The result holds for arbitrary values of the parameters of the system. From this the adiabatic and antiadiabatic approximations are obtained as particular cases and compared with the results obtained differently. The limit of a strong interaction is also considered. It is found that for strong interaction or equivalently for the harmonic frequency tending to zero the preexponential factor in the tunneling splitting tends to zero which results in a suppression of tunneling. Implications of this result for tunneling in a more general potential are discussed.     

Anomalously long passage through a rounded-off-step potential due to a new mechanism of multidimensional tunneling

The fully complex domain semiclassical theory based upon the complexified stable-unstable manifold theory, which we have developed in our recent studies, is successfully applied to explain anomalous tunneling phenomena numerically observed in a periodically modulated round-off-step potential. Numerical experiments show that tunneling through the oscillating step potential is characterized by a spatially nondecaying tunneling tail and an anomalously slow relaxation. The key is the existence of a critical trajectory exhibiting singular behavior, and the analysis of neighboring trajectories around it reproduces the essence of such anomalous phenomena.     

Observation of soliton tunneling phenomena and soliton ejection

We study, theoretically and experimentally, the nonlinear dynamics of a wave packet launched inside a trap potential. Increasing the power of the wave packet transforms its dynamics from linear tunneling through a potential barrier, to soliton tunneling, and eventually, above a well-defined threshold, to the ejection of a soliton from the potential trap.     

Effects of static and random magnetic fields on atoms in a gray optical lattice

We study magnetic field-induced modifications of the well-to-well tunneling behavior of atoms in a one-dimensional grey optical lattice. Measurements of the tunneling frequency as a function of the applied magnetic field reveal several tunneling resonances. We further show that the tunneling signal can be suppressed by randomly varying the symmetry of the potential wells. The tunneling is suppressed most effectively if the autocorrelation time of the lattice-well variation is on the order of the tunneling time. Experimental and theoretical results are in good agreement.     

Klein tunneling in graphene: optics with massless electrons

This article provides a pedagogical review on Klein tunneling in graphene, i.e. the peculiar tunneling properties of two-dimensional massless Dirac electrons. We consider two simple situations in detail: a massless Dirac electron incident either on a potential step or on a potential barrier and use elementary quantum wave mechanics to obtain the transmission probability. We emphasize the connection to related phenomena in optics, such as the Snell-Descartes law of refraction, total internal reflection, Fabry-Pérot resonances, negative refraction index materials (the so called meta-materials), etc. We also stress that Klein tunneling is not a genuine quantum tunneling effect as it does not necessarily involve passing through a classically forbidden region via evanescent waves. A crucial role in Klein tunneling is played by the conservation of (sublattice) pseudo-spin, which is discussed in detail. A major consequence is the absence of backscattering at normal incidence, of which we give a new shorten proof. The current experimental status is also thoroughly reviewed. The Appendix contains the discussion of a one-dimensional toy model that clearly illustrates the difference in Klein tunneling between mono- and bi-layer graphene.     

Mechanism of low-voltage field emission from nanocarbon materials

Field emission from nanostructured carbon materials is analyzed by applying the model of emission center in which the emitting surface contains two phases of carbon having substantially different electronic properties. In accordance with this model, the proposed mechanism involves electron tunneling through two potential barriers. The calculated probability of tunneling through two potential barriers implies that the low-voltage field emission observed experimentally can be attributed to the existence of resonant surface states. Numerical estimates suggest that the emission current can increase by at least four orders of magnitude owing to resonant tunneling through two potential barriers.     

An analytic model for gate-all-around silicon nanowire tunneling field effect transistors

An analytical model of gate-all-around(GAA) silicon nanowire tunneling field effect transistors(NW-TFETs) is developted based on the surface potential solutions in the channel direction and considering the band to band tunneling(BTBT) efficiency. The three-dimensional Poisson equation is solved to obtain the surface potential distributions in the partition regions along the channel direction for the NW-TFET, and a tunneling current model using Kane’s expression is developed. The validity of the developed model is shown by the good agreement between the model predictions and the TCAD simulation results.     

Asymmetric Landau-Zener tunneling in a periodic potential

Using a simple model for nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling between two energy bands of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a periodic potential, we find that the tunneling rates for the two directions of tunneling are not the same. Tunneling from the ground state to the excited state is enhanced by the nonlinearity, whereas in the opposite direction it is suppressed. These findings are confirmed by numerical simulations of the condensate dynamics. Measuring the tunneling rates for a condensate of rubidium atoms in an optical lattice, we have found experimental evidence for this asymmetry.     

Dynamical tunneling of bound systems through a potential barrier: Complex way to the top

A semiclassical method of complex trajectories for the calculation of the tunneling exponent n systems with many degrees of freedom is further developed. It is supplemented with an easily implemented technique that enables one to single out the physically relevant trajectory from the whole set of complex classical trajectories. The method is applied to semiclassical transitions of a bound system through a potential barrier. We find that the properties of physically relevant complex trajectories are qualitatively different in the cases of potential tunneling at low energy and dynamical tunneling at energies exceeding the barrier height. Namely, in the case of high energies, the physically relevant complex trajectories describe tunneling via creation of a state close to the top of the barrier. The method is checked against exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation in a quantum-mechanical system of two degrees of freedom.     

Effects of barrier fluctuation on the tunneling dynamics in the presence of classical chaos in a mixed quantum-classical system

We present a numerical investigation of the tunneling dynamics of a particle moving in a bistable potential with fluctuating barrier which is coupled to a non-integrable classical system and study the interplay between classical chaos and barrier fluctuation in the tunneling dynamics. We found that the coupling of the quantum system with the classical subsystem decreases the tunneling rate irrespective of whether the classical subsystem is regular or chaotic and also irrespective of the fact that whether the barrier fluctuates or not. Presence of classical chaos always enhances the tunneling rate constant. The effect of barrier fluctuation on the tunneling rate in a mixed quantum-classical system is to suppress the tunneling rate. In contrast to the case of regular subsystem, the suppression arising due to barrier fluctuation is more visible when the subsystem is chaotic.      

Quantum oscillation of the tunneling conductance in fully epitaxial double barrier magnetic tunnel junctions

We investigated spin-dependent tunneling conductance properties in fully epitaxial double MgO barrier magnetic tunnel junctions with layered nanoscale Fe islands as a middle layer. Clear oscillations of the tunneling conductance were observed as a function of the bias voltage. The oscillation, which depends on the middle layer thickness and the magnetization configuration, is interpreted by the modulation of tunneling conductance due to the spin-polarized quantum well states created in the middle Fe layer. This first observation of the quantum size effect in the fully epitaxial double barrier magnetic tunnel junction indicates great potential for the development of the spin-dependent resonant tunneling effect in coherent tunneling regime.     

玻色-费米混合气体的非线性Landau-Zener隧穿

在有相互作用的非线性两模系统中, 通过对相互作用参数的调节, 研究了该系统中玻色-费米混合气体的Landau-Zener隧穿现象. 研究发现, 其中某一组分的自相互作用会影响另一组分粒子的隧穿, 使得隧穿出现临界现象. 关键词： 玻色-费米混合气体 Landau-Zener隧穿 量子绝热隧穿     

Time Correlation in Tunneling of Photons

I propose to consider photon tunneling as a space-time correlation phenomenon between the emission and absorption of a photon on the two sides of a barrier. Standard technics based on an appropriate counting rate formula may then be applied to derive the tunneling time distribution without any ad hoc definition of this quantity. General formulae are worked out for a potential model using Wigner–Weisskopf method. For a homogeneous square barrier in the limit of zero tunneling probability a vanishing tunneling time is obtained.     

Coulomb potential influence in the attoclock experimental scheme

Coulomb potential may induce a significant angular offset to the two-dimensional photoelectron momentum distributions for atoms subject to strong elliptically polarized laser fields.In the attoclock experiment,this offset usually cannot be easily disentangled from the contribution of tunneling delay and poses a main obstacle to the precise measurement of tunneling delay.Based on semiclassical calculations,here,we propose a method to extract the equivalent temporal offset induced solely by Coulomb potential(TOCP)in an attoclock experiment.Our calculations indicate that,at constant laser intensity,the TOCP shows distinctive wavelength dependence laws for different model atoms,and the ratio of the target atom’s TOCP to that of H becomes insensitive to wavelength and linearly proportional to(2Ip)?3/2,where Ip is the ionization potential of the target atom.This wavelength and Ip dependence of TOCP can be further applied to extract the Coulomb potential influence.Our work paves the way for an accurate measurement of the tunneling delay in the tunneling ionization of atoms subject to intense elliptically polarized laser fields.     

偏压在隧道效应中的作用

从隧道扫描势垒模型出发。用量子力学导出隧道电流与针尖间的偏压、间距及它们的逸出功之间的关系,并从能带模型的角度导出样品与针尖的间距不变时,隧道电流与偏压成正比关系．指出偏压的作用主要是提高针尖上电子的能量,使针尖上的电子比样品上的电子更容易穿过势垒,从而形成隧道电流．     

Landau-Zener tunneling of Bose-Fermi mixture in double-well

The nonlinear Landau-Zener tunneling of a Bose-Fermi mixture in a double-well potential is studied in the present paper. The effect of interaction parameters on bosonic and fermionic tunneling probability is studied for the mixture of ⁴⁰K-⁸⁷Rb. The tunneling phenomena of the system can be controled by adjusting sweeping rate, intraspecies interaction, interspecies interaction and the numbers of bosons and fermions. It is noted that there are three different regions in phase diagram: self-trapping (ST), complete tunneling (CT) and incomplete tunneling (ICT).     

Resonant tunneling and spreading of wave packets

When a wave packet passes through a tunneling structure, the packet shape changes due to interaction with the potential of the structure. Simultaneously the pulse spreads because it contains waves that have different phase velocities and the tunneling is a long-term process. The effect of the spreading on the tunneling pulse shape is investigated analytically for packets with energy width much less than the width of the resonance. It is shown that whereas the tunneling process is a prolonged one, under certain conditions the effect of the spreading is negligible so that the changes of the packet shape are governed mainly by the resonant tunneling process.     

Electrically tunable macroscopic quantum tunneling in a graphene-based Josephson junction

Stochastic switching-current distribution in a graphene-based Josephson junction exhibits a crossover from the classical to quantum regime, revealing the macroscopic quantum tunneling of a Josephson phase particle at low temperatures. Microwave spectroscopy measurements indicate a multiphoton absorption process occurring via discrete energy levels in washboard potential well. The crossover temperature for macroscopic quantum tunneling and the quantized level spacing are controlled with the gate voltage, implying its potential application to gate-tunable superconducting quantum bits.