Eigenstate suppressed activation

Abstract

It is well known that varying quasi-eigenstate can increase the probability for barrier penetration substantially. This process was named Eigenstate Assisted Activation [1]. In this paper the dynamics of a temporally varying resonant tunneling process was thoroughly investigated. It was found that there are three time scale regimes. In the very long adiabatic time scales the process is not qualitatively different than any Quantum Tunneling one, and the average energy of the tunneling particle remains unchanged. However, below a certain time scale activation occurs as was anticipated by Azbel [1]. In this process that particle, temporally trapped in the quasi eigenstate, is elevated energetically due to the changes in the perturbation. Nevertheless, in this paper a third regime is explored for the first time. Below even a shorter time scale, a destructive interference can occur inside the well for specific discrete incoming particles energies (or specific time scales), for which activation is totally suppressed. Each one of these energetic, i.e. time scales, regimes was investigated both numerically and analytically with excellent agreement between them.