Current-distance-voltage characteristics of electron tunneling through an electrochemical STM junction

We have studied the electron tunneling process through an electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopic (STM) junction formed by a gold tip and a gold electrode immersed in an inert NaClO₄ solution. Current-distance-voltage characteristics of the tunneling process are examined by simultaneous measurement of tunneling current, voltage, and distance. The results indicate that the tunneling voltage across the junction changes with tunneling distance; however, tunneling conductance is an inverse exponential function of distance over the entire investigated range of tunneling current, voltage, and distance. The results provide clear evidence for the validity of a one-dimensional tunneling model for the aqueous tunneling process. Implications of the observation are mentioned with regard to the distance-dependent STM imaging and the origin of a low tunneling barrier height.     

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.     

Tunneling Dynamics of Two-Species Bose-Einstein Condensates with Feshbach Resonances

We investigate tunneling dynamics of atomic group consisting of three atoms in Bose-Einstein condensates with Feshbach resonance. It is shown that the tunneling of the atom group depends not only on the inter-atomic nonlinear interactions and the initial number of atoms in these condensates, but also on the tunneling coupling between the atomic condensate and the three-atomic molecular condensate. It is found that besides oscillating tunneling current between the atomic condensate and the molecular condensate, the nonlinear atomic group tunneling dynamics sustains a self-maintained population imbalance: a macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect. The influence of de-coherence caused by non-condensate atoms on the tunneling dynamics is studied. It is indicated that de-coherence suppresses the atomic group tunneling.     

Andreev and single-particle tunneling spectra of underdoped cuprate superconductors

We study tunneling spectroscopy between a normal metal and an underdoped cuprate superconductor modeled by a phenomenological theory in which the pseudogap is a precursor to the undoped Mott insulator. In the low barrier tunneling limit, the spectra are enhanced by Andreev reflection only within a voltage region of the small superconducting energy gap. In the high barrier tunneling limit, the spectra show a large energy pseudogap associated with single particle tunneling. Our theory semiquantitatively describes the two gap behavior observed in tunneling experiments.     

Tunneling Dynamics Between Any Two Multi-atomic-molecular Bose-Einstein Condensates

Tunneling dynamics of multi-atomic molecules between any two multi-atomic molecular Bose-Einstein condensates with Feshbach resonance is investigated. It is indicated that the tunneling in the two Bose-Einstein condensates depends not only on the inter-molecular nonlinear interactions and the initial number of molecule in these condensates, but also on the tunneling coupling between them. It is discovered that besides oscillating tunneling current between the multi-atomic molecular condensates, the nonlinear multi-atomic molecular tunneling dynamics sustains a self-locked population imbalance: a macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect. The influence of de-coherence caused by non-condensate molecule on the tunneling dynamics is studied. It is shown that de-coherence suppresses the multi-atomic molecular tunneling.     

Theory of single molecule vibrational spectroscopy and microscopy

We have carried out a density functional study of vibrationally inelastic tunneling in the scanning tunneling microscope of acetylene on copper. Our approach is based on a many-body generalization of the Tersoff-Hamann theory. We explain why only the carbon-hydrogen stretch modes are observed in terms of inelastic and elastic contributions to the tunneling conductance. The inelastic tunneling is found to be efficient and highly localized in space without any resonant interaction and to be governed by a vibration-induced change in tunneling amplitude.     

Convergent expansions for tunneling

A new method to compute effects of tunneling in one-dimensional multiple well is developed. A tunneling parameter built with physical quantities is introduced to measure the splitting between eigenvalues due to tunneling. These splittings are given by convergent series in term of this tunneling parameter for a wide class of double well.     

含单负介质层受阻全内反射结构的光子隧穿现象研究

利用稳定相位理论得到了光子穿越含单负介质层受阻全内反射结构的隧穿时间以及光子穿透光学势垒后产生的横向位移.分析结果表明，当势垒为单负介质时，光子隧穿可能表现出负的隧穿时间和负的横向位移.隧穿时间和横向位移存在Hartman效应，使得光子隧穿过程具有超光速性质.此外，基于TM波和TE波通过负介电常数介质和负磁导率介质势垒产生的横向位移的方向正好相反，得到了一种有效的区分两类单负介质的方法. 关键词： 光子隧穿 负折射 单负介质 超光速     

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.     

Charged Fermions Tunneling from a Rotating Charged Black Hole in 5-Dimensional Gauged Supergravity

Recent research shows that Hawking radiation from black hole horizoncan be treated as a quantum tunneling process, and fermions tunneling method can successfully recover Hawking temperature. In this tunneling framework, choosing a set of appropriate matrices γ^μ is an important technique for fermions tunneling method. In this paper, motivated by Kerner and Man's fermions tunneling method of 4 dimension black holes, we further improve the analysis to investigate Hawking tunneling radiation from a rotating charged black hole in 5-dimensional gauged supergravity byconstructing a set of appropriate matrices γ^μ for general covariant Dirac equation. Finally, the expected Hawking temperature of the black hole is correctly recovered, which takes the same form as that obtained by other methods. This method is universal, and can also be directly extend to the other different-type 5-dimensional charged black holes.     

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).     

Instanton paths and coherent quantum tunneling in antiferromagnetic spin clusters subject to a strong magnetic field

The coherent quantum tunneling effects in antiferromagnets in the presence of a strong external magnetic field parallel to the easy axis have been investigated using the instanton formalism. In a wide field range including the region of the phase spin-flop transition, the tunneling is described by 180° instantons for which the Euclidean action is real and destructive interference is absent. At the transition point, 90° instantons describing the tunneling between the collinear and spin-flop states appear. The Euclidean action decreases, whereas the tunneling probability and tunneling level splitting in both phases increase significantly in the immediate vicinity of the spin-flop transition point. The possibility of observing the coherent tunneling effects for artificial small particles (magnetic dots) made of antiferromagnets is discussed.     

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.     

Tunneling Dynamics Between Atomic and Molecular Bose-Einstein Condensates

Tunneling dynamics of multi-atomic molecules between atomic and multi-atomic molecular Bose-Einstein condensates with Feshbach resonance is investigated.It is indicated that the tunneling in the two Bose-Einstein condensates depends on not only the inter-atomic-molecular nonlinear interactions and the initial number of atoms in these condensates,but also the tunneling coupling between the atomic condensate and the multi-atomic molecular condensate.It is discovered that besides oscillating tunneling current between the atomic condensate and the multi-atomic molecular condensate,the nonlinear multi-atomic molecular tunneling dynamics sustains a self-locked population imbalance:a macroscopic quantum self-trapping effect.The influence of de-coherence caused by non-condensate atoms on the tunneling dynamics is studied.It is shown that de-coherence suppresses the multi-atomic molecular tunneling.Moreover,the conception of the molecular Bose-Einstein condensate,which is different from the conventional single-atomic Bose-Einstein condensate,is specially emphasized in this paper.     

Observation of photon-assisted tunneling in optical lattices

We have observed tunneling suppression and photon-assisted tunneling of Bose-Einstein condensates in an optical lattice subjected to a constant force plus a sinusoidal shaking. For a sufficiently large constant force, the ground energy levels of the lattice are shifted out of resonance and tunneling is suppressed; when the shaking is switched on, the levels are coupled by low-frequency photons and tunneling resumes. Our results agree well with theoretical predictions and demonstrate the usefulness of optical lattices for studying solid-state phenomena.     

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.     

The effect of the surface enhanced polariton field on the tunneling current of a STM

The influence of surface polaritons (SPs), excited on the external (fast mode) and internal (slow mode) surfaces of a gold film, on the tunneling current of a STM is investigated. The role of the surface polaritons is directly demonstrated by the angular excitation spectra of the induced tunneling current. Possible mechanisms which might give rise to the SP induced change in the tunneling current are discussed. An electromagnetic field of SPs within a tunneling gap is estimated to be surface enhanced in order to explain the value of the induced tunneling current. Images of the polariton induced signal distribution over the sample surface taken by means of different SP modes are compared in order to obtain information on the structure of the internal surface of the film.     

Tunneling time and stochastic-mechanical trajectories for the double-barrier potential

Quantum motion of particles tunneling a double barrier potential is considered by using stochastic mechanics. Stochastic-mechanical trajectories give us information about complex motion of tunneling particles that is not obtained within the framework of ordinary quantum mechanics. Using such information, we calculate the tunneling times within each of the barriers which depend on the distance between them. It is found that the stochastic-mechanical tunneling time shows better asymptotic behavior than the quantum-mechanical dwell time and presence time.     

Fano-type spin-flip mesoscopic transport through an Aharonov-Bohm interferometer

We have investigated the mesoscopic transport properties of a quantum dot embedded Aharonov-Bohm (AB) interferometer applied with a rotating magnetic field. The spin-flip effect is induced by the rotating magnetic field, and the tunneling current is sensitive to the spin-flip effect. The spin-flipped electrons tunneling from the direct channel and the resonant channel interfere with each other to form spin-polarized tunneling current components. The non-resonant tunneling (direct transmission) strength and the AB phase φ play important roles. When the non-resonant tunneling (background transmission) exists, the spin and charge currents form asymmetric peaks and valleys, which exhibit Fano-type line shapes by varying the source-drain bias voltage, or gate voltage. The AB oscillations of the spin and charge currents exhibit distinct dependence on the magnetic flux and direct tunneling strength.     

Single-molecule reaction and characterization by vibrational excitation

Controlled chemical reaction of single trans-2-butene molecules on the Pd(110) surface was realized by dosing tunneling electrons from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope at 4.7 K. The reaction product was identified as a 1,3-butadiene molecule by inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy. Threshold voltage for the reaction is approximately 365 mV, which coincides with the vibrational excitation of the C-H stretching mode. The reaction was ascertained to be caused by C-H bond dissociation by multiple vibrational excitations of the C-H stretching mode via inelastic electron tunneling process.