Tunneling of dipolar spin waves through a region of inhomogeneous magnetic field

We show experimentally and by numerical simulations that spin waves propagating in a magnetic film can pass through a region of a magnetic field inhomogeneity or they can be reflected by the region depending on the sign of the inhomogeneity. If the reflecting region is narrow enough, spin-wave tunneling takes place. We investigate the tunneling mechanism and demonstrate that it has a magnetic dipole origin.     

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.     

Tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene

We have studied the tunneling of Dirac fermions through magnetic barriers in graphene. Magnetic barriers are produced via delta function-like inhomogeneous magnetic fields in which Dirac fermions in graphene experience the tunneling barrier in the real sense in contrast to Klein paradox caused by electrostatic barriers. The transmission through the magnetic barriers as functions of incident energy and angle of incoming fermions shows characteristic oscillations associated with tunneling resonances. We have also found the confined states in the magnetic barrier region which turn out to correspond to the total internal reflection in the usual optics.     

Coherent Resonant Tunneling Model in Double-Barrier Nanostructures

We propose a coherent resonant tunneling model in double-barrier nanostructutes in which besides an interference effect originated from coherent tunneling of single electron through two barriers, the effects of one-electron charging, discrete energy spectrum and electron interactions between barriers are also important. The interference effect, like that for light in Fabry-Perot cavity, will occur no matter whether a magnetic field exists or not, and is shown to have significant effect on the systems' tunneling current. Our model agrees
surprisingly well with all the main experimental features of the phenomenon discovered by Scott Thomas et al.     

Questions concerning the generalized Hartman effect

With reference to a particle tunneling through two successive barriers, it seems to have been generally accepted that the tunneling time does not depend on the separation distance between the barriers. This phenomenon has been called the generalized Hartman effect. In this Letter, we point out a lack of mathematical rigor in the reasoning by which this effect was deduced about ten years ago. A mathematically rigorous treatment shows us that the tunneling time does indeed depend on the length of the free space between the barriers.     

Cascade compression induced by nonlinear barriers in propagation of optical solitons

We investigate the nonlinear tunneling of optical solitons through both dispersion and nonlinear barriers by employing the exact solution of the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation with variable coefficients. The extensive numerical simulations show that the optical solitons can be efficiently compressed when they pass through adequate engineered nonlinear barriers. A cascade compression system in a dispersion decreasing fiber with nonlinear barriers on an exponential background is proposed and the cascade compression of optical pulses is further investigated in detail. Finally, the stability to various initial perturbations of the cascade compressed optical soliton and the interaction between two neighboring compressed solitons were investigated too.     

Positive current correlations associated with super-Poissonian shot noise

We report on shot noise cross spectrum measurements in a beam splitter configuration. Electrons tunneling through potential barriers are incident on a beam splitter and scattered into two separate channels. Such a partition process introduces correlations between the fluctuations of the two currents. Our work has confirmed that the generally expected negative correlations resulted from sub-Poissonian electron sources. More interestingly, positive cross correlations associated with barriers exhibiting super-Poissonian shot noise have also been observed. We have found that both positive and negative correlations can be related to the noise properties of the electron source.     

Properties of photon tunneling through single-negative materials

The photon tunneling phenomena in the composite barriers of single-negative materials were analyzed. It was found that the tunneling through such a barrier shifts TE- and TM-polarization light waves laterally (parallel to the material interface) in two opposite directions, causing them to be divided into two waves after tunneling. This property could not be obtained with double-positive and (or) double-negative materials.     

Time domain de Broglie wave interferometry along a magnetic guide

Propagation and tunneling of light through photonic barriers formed by thin dielectric films with continuous curvilinear distributions of dielectric susceptibility across the film, are considered. Giant heterogeneity-induced dispersion of these films, both convex and concave, and its influence on their reflectivity and transmittivity are visualized by means of exact analytical solutions of Maxwell equations. Depending on the cut-off frequency of the film, governed by the spatial profile of its refractive index, propagation or tunneling of light through such barriers are examined. Subject to the shape of refractive index profile the group velocities of EM waves in these films are shown to be either increased or deccreased as compared with the homogeneous layers; however, these velocities for both propagation and tunneling regimes remain subluminal. The decisive influence of gradient and curvature of photonic barriers on the efficiency of tunneling is examined by means of generalized Fresnel formulae. Saturation of the phase of the wave tunneling through a stack of such films (Hartman effect), is demonstrated. The evanescent modes in lossy barriers and violation of Hartman effect in this case is discussed.     

Resonance split of ballistic conductance peaks in electric and magnetic superlattices

Resonant peak splitting for ballistic conductance in finite electric superlattices (ES) and magnetic superlattices (MS) was investigated theoretically. It is shown that, for electron tunneling through the ES (MS) of identical n electric (magnetic) barriers, the resonance split of the conductance peak is (n–1)-fold; while for electron tunneling through the ES (MS) made of two different barriers, one resonant window of the former splits into two subwindows, within each of which the resonance split is (m–1)-fold, where m is the number of the renormalized building blocks consisting of two different barriers of the latter. Received 15 February 2000     

Confronting the Hartman effect with data from frustrated total internal reflection (FTIR)

Over 40 years ago, Hartman noted that the tunneling time τ of a particle through a barrier becomes independent of width for thick barriers. Lately, the Hartman effect has been seen as a support for superluminal tunneling time. By interpreting the reflection and transmission amplitudes in terms of multiple reflection series, we show that τ is linear in barrier width for thin barriers and may be associated with actual traversal time; for thick barriers, τ saturates to the Hartman value because of the suppression of all but the first term of the series due to the smallness of the tunneling factor. For large widths, τ cannot be identified with the propagation time but may be associated with a time to penetrate to a characteristic depth into the barrier, which is independent of width. We discuss data from frustrated internal reflection experiments, which support this view.     

Magnetotransport in a graphene monolayer with two tunable magnetic barriers

The magnetotransport property for a monolayer graphene with two turnable magnetic barriers has been investigated by the transfer-matrix method. We show that the parameters of barrier height, width, and interval between two barriers affect the electron wave decaying length, which determine the conductance with parallel or antiparallel magnetization configuration, and consequently the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) for the system. Interestingly, a graphene attached by two barriers with different heights can produce a resonant TMR peak at low energy region one order of magnitude larger than that for the system with two same height barriers because that the asymmetry of magnetic barriers block the electron transmission in the case of antiparallel magnetization configuration. The results obtained here may be useful in understanding of electron tunneling in graphene and in designing of graphene-based nanodevices.     

Analysis of the phase tunneling time for cold neutrons through a neutron interference filter

Explicit expressions are obtained for the energy dependence of the particle transmission coefficient and phase tunneling time through two rectangular barriers near resonance. The resonance half-width and the phase tunneling time for neutrons in resonance are calculated.     

Resonant tunneling of ultracold atoms through vacuum induced potentials

We demonstrate resonant tunneling of ultracold atoms through potentials produced by the interaction of atoms with the vacuum field of a system of cavities. We show the close connection of the transmission characteristics to the resonant states in vacuum induced potentials. Transmission of cold atoms, though sharing some features with tunneling in finite semiconductor superlattices, is strongly dependent on the coherent addition of amplitudes from various wells and barriers.     

Quantum ratchets and quantum heat pumps

Quantum ratchets are Brownian motors in which the quantum dynamics of particles induces qualitatively new behavior. We review a series of experiments in which asymmetric semiconductor devices of sub-micron dimensions are used to study quantum ratchets for electrons. In rocked quantum-dot ratchets electron-wave interference is used to create a non-linear voltage response, leading to a ratchet effect. The direction of the net ratchet current in this type of device can be sensitively controlled by changing one of the following experimental variables: a small external magnetic field, the amplitude of the rocking force, or the Fermi energy. We also describe a tunneling ratchet in which the current direction depends on temperature. In our discussion of the tunneling ratchet we distinguish between three contributions to the non-linear current–voltage characteristics that lead to the ratchet effect: thermal excitation over energy barriers, tunneling through barriers, and wave reflection from barriers. Finally, we discuss the operation of adiabatically rocked tunneling ratchets as heat pumps. Received: 8 February 2002 / Accepted: 11 February 2002 / Published online: 22 April 2002     

Spin-Polarized Electron Tunneling TD:\pdf\.PDFhrough a Quantum Dot

Nonequilibrium Green's function is uscd to study spin-polarized electron tunneling through a quantum dot connected to two ferromagnetic electrodes with different orientations via two insulating barriers (FM/I/QD/I/FA.f). Intra-level Coulomb interaction in the dot is considered. General formula of tunneling current which can be used for arbitrary angle between the two electrodes' magnetizations is derived for both the weak and strong intra-dot interactions.We find that the transport current can be divided into two parts: the current with the spin-flip and the current without the spin-flip, which critically depend on the linewidth function near the Fermi level of the ferromagnetic electrodes. If a magnetic field is applied in the quantum dot, different behaviors will be found for weak and strong interactions.     

Control of relative tunneling rates in single molecule bipolar electron transport

The influence of relative electron tunneling rates on electron transport in a double-barrier single-molecule junction is studied. The junction is defined by positioning a scanning tunneling microscope tip above a copper phthalocyanine molecule adsorbed on a thin oxide film grown on the NiAl(110) surface. By tuning the tip-molecule separation, the ratio of tunneling rates through the two barriers, vacuum and oxide, is controlled. This results in dramatic changes in the relative intensities of individual conduction channels, associated with different vibronic states of the molecule.     

Gate-tunable valley-filter based on suspended graphene with double magnetic barrier structures

We theoretically investigate the effects of strain-induced pseudomagnetic fields on the transmission probability and the ballistic conductance for Dirac fermion transport in suspended graphene. We show that resonant tunneling through double magnetic barriers can be tuned by strain in the suspended region. The valley-resolved transmission peaks are apparently distinguishable owing to the sharpness of the resonant tunneling. With the specific strain, the resonant tunneling is completely suppressed for Dirac fermions occupying the one valley, but the resonant tunneling exists for the other valley. The valley-filtering effect is expected to be measurable by strain engineering. The proposed system can be used to fabricate a graphene valley filter with the large valley polarization almost 100%.     

Correlated tunneling in intramolecular carbon nanotube quantum dots

We investigate correlated electronic transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes with two intramolecular tunneling barriers. We suggest that below a characteristic temperature the long-range nature of the Coulomb interaction becomes crucial to determine the temperature dependence of the maximum G(max) of the conductance peak. Correlated sequential tunneling dominates transport yielding the power law G(max) proportional, variant T(alpha(end-end)-1), typical for tunneling between the ends of two Luttinger liquids. Our predictions are in agreement with recent measurements.     

Delay time computation for relativistic tunneling particles

We study the tunneling zone solutions of a one-dimensional electrostatic potential for the relativistic (Dirac to Klein–Gordon) wave equation when the incoming wave packet exhibits the possibility of being almost totally transmitted through the barrier. The transmission probabilities, the phase times and the dwell times for the proposed relativistic dynamics are obtained and the conditions for the occurrence of accelerated tunneling transmission are all quantified. We show that, in some limiting cases, the analytical difficulties that arise when the stationary phase method is employed for obtaining phase (traversal) tunneling times are all overcome. Lessons concerning the phenomenology of the relativistic tunneling suggest revealing insights into condensed-matter experiments using electrostatic barriers for which the accelerated tunneling effect can be observed. PACS 03.65.Xp