Tunneling mechanism in electron transfer. A view from the Feynman's path integral approach

Abstract

The Feynman's path integral approach is used to analyze the quantum tunneling mechanism in electron-transfer reactions. A transition function W T( x) is derived in terms of the reaction coordinate, displaying multi-phonon tunneling transitions. This method offers better insights and improves our understanding of the tunneling mechanism. It provides a smooth connection between the high-temperature classical regime and the low-temperature quantum tunneling regime.