Abstract
In this chapter we shall be concerned with the time scale associated with quantum mechanical tunneling. More precisely, we shall discuss how long it takes for an electron to tunnel through a classically forbidden region. This traversal time is distinct from the lifetime of a metastable or resonant state that decays by a tunneling process. In a classical analogy(1) we may consider a gas escaping from a large vessel through a thin tube. The time scale corresponding to the lifetime of the metastable state is the average length of time a gas particle spends in the vessel. When a gas particle finally is able to escape, the much shorter time it has spent in the thin tube is the analogue of the traversal time.
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