Computer simulation of a wave packet tunneling through a square barrier

Abstract

It is shown that, for energies E<or=V/sub 0/, the barrier height, the typical tunneling time is on the order of 10/sup -15/ s. The traversal time as a function of kinetic energy is locally symmetric near E=V/sub 0/. The tunneling time depends on the shape of the wave packet. The tunneling time is linearly dependent on barrier thickness for a wave packet with finite width. These conclusions are compared with the results obtained from other methods for estimating tunneling times.