Tunneling Time Research Articles

Pinhole evolution of few-layer graphene during electron tunneling and electron transport

With graphene as a well-known representative, two-dimensional (2D) atomic crystals are single-layer or few-layer crystalline materials. It is significant to investigate the structure evolution of the 2D atomic crystals in electronic movement process, because it relates to the stability of material properties and the feasibility of the device application. Here, the pinhole evolution of few-layer graphene during electron tunneling and electron transport was observed using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For few-layer graphene with defects, pinholes expanded with an increase on the electron tunneling current and time, respectively. However, during electron transport processes, with increasing current and time, both, expansion and shrinkage behaviors could be observed among the pinholes distributed within the graphene nanosheet. These behaviors are the result of competition between sublimation and self-repair. Both types of pinhole evolution aim to form a smooth surface with lower surface free energy. The critical boundary conditions for the sublimation and self-repair are determined by the temperature, graphene pinhole structure and active graphene fragment. These findings provide significant reference for the stability of graphene structure and the reliability of graphene based electronic device.

Sub-picosecond proton tunnelling in deformed DNA hydrogen bonds under an asymmetric double-oscillator model

.We present a model of proton tunnelling across DNA hydrogen bonds, compute the characteristic tunnelling time (CTT) from donor to acceptor and discuss its biological implications. The model is a double oscillator characterised by three geometry parameters describing planar deformations of the H bond, and a symmetry parameter representing the energy ratio between ground states in the individual oscillators. We discover that some values of the symmetry parameter lead to CTTs which are up to 40 orders of magnitude smaller than a previous model predicted. Indeed, if the symmetry parameter is sufficiently far from its extremal values of 1 or 0, then the proton’s CTT under any physically realistic planar deformation is guaranteed to be below one picosecond, which is a biologically relevant time-scale. This supports theories of links between proton tunnelling and biological processes such as spontaneous mutation.Graphical abstract

Performance of Copper Calorimeter for Heat Transfer Measurement in High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel

Copper calorimeter, based on a calorimetric principle, offers a solution for heat transfer measurement in high enthalpy situation, especially in the erosive flow of high enthalpy shock tunnels. In this study, we numerically investigated the measuring performance of copper calorimeters. Non-ideal effects, such as heat loss to the insulator around and replacement of the average temperature of the copper element by the junction temperature, were discussed in detail. The influences of copper element thickness, copper/constantan wires thickness and sensor diameter were also estimated, with the aim to provide theoretical guidance for the design of copper calorimeter. In addition, corresponding experiments in JF10 high enthalpy shock tunnel were carried out against the data of coaxial thermocouples for verification. Results showed that the non-ideal thermal environment of a copper calorimeter (heat exchange with its surroundings) would result in a smaller measuring heat flux comparing to the one actually loaded; proper thickness of copper element matching the effective test time of shock tunnel was suggested. Besides, preliminary experimental results with corrections showed reasonable agreement with the heat flux of thermocouples, with an average deviation of 8%. Over all, this gauge developed extends and supplements the high enthalpy shock tunnel heat transfer measurements made by other techniques.

Spin-dependent tunneling time and Hartman effect in silicene

We theoretically investigate the tunneling time, including group delay and dwell time, through silicene barrier in the presence of extrinsic Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI). It is found that the group delay and dwell time depend on the spin state of electron and have an oscillatory behavior with respect to on-site potential difference between A and B sublattices (Δz) and barrier width. Furthermore similar to graphene the group delay time for normal incident angle is independent of spin state of electron, while unlike the graphene, the superluminal tunneling or Hartman effect can be observed even at the normal incidence. Moreover, the difference of the dwell time between spin-up and spin-down can be efficiently tuned by the (Δz) and extrinsic RSOI strength.

Tunneling time in attosecond experiment for hydrogen atom

Tunneling and tunneling time are hot debated and very interesting issues because of their fundamental role in the quantum mechanics. The measurement of the tunneling time in today’s attosecond and strong field (low-frequency) experiments, despite its controversial discussion offers a fruitful opportunity to understand the time measurement and the role of time in quantum mechanics. In previous work Kullie (2015 Phys. Rev. A 92, 052118), we suggested a model and derived a simple relation to calculate the tunneling time, which showed a good agreement with the experimental result for He-atom. In the present work we analyze and discuss our model considering the experimental result for H-atom, which is obtained recently by Satya Sainadh et al (2017 arXiv:1707.05445). In the tunneling region, we find that our model shows a good agreement with their experimental result (similar to the He-atom in our previous work), and with the accompanied time-dependent Schrödiger equation simulations. However, Sainadh et al use a different picture of the tunneling, in which tunneling time becomes an imaginary quantity. Whereas our model represents a real tunneling time picture, precisely a delay time with respect to the ionization time at the atomic field strength. Moreover, even though the above-threshold-ionization is beyond the tunneling regime, we still see that the actual ionization time is related to our model. However, crucial points arise and keep some questions open especially on the experimental side.

Carrier dynamics in hybrid nanostructure with electronic coupling from an InGaAs quantum well to InAs quantum dots

Carrier dynamics including carrier relaxation and tunneling within a coupled InAs quantum dot (QD) – In0.15Ga0.85As quantum well (QW) hybrid nanostructure are investigated using photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. This coupled hybrid nanostructure shows a single PL peak from the QD emission at low excitation intensity and a band filling behavior is observed as the excitation intensity increases, suggesting that there exists a channel to capture carriers from the QW to the QDs. Time resolved PL (TRPL) measurements extract a carrier tunneling time of 103.7 ps, which is only one third of the theoretical prediction. A double-channel resonant carrier tunneling mechanism from the QW to the wetting layer and to the fifth excited state of the QDs and then carrier relaxation into lower discrete QD energy states is proposed to explain this fast carrier tunneling. The double-channel resonant carrier tunneling mechanism is qualitatively supported through the analysis of the excitation-dependent PL spectra as well as the PL excitation spectra. These results enrich our understanding of carrier dynamics in coupled QD and QW hybrid structures.

An analytical approach to model capacitance and resistance of capped carbon nanotube single electron transistor

The single electron transistor (SET) as a nanoscale transistor operates according to the electron tunneling via two tunnel junctions. Since selecting a suitable island material plays a key role in electron transfer through the tunnel junctions, in this research capped Carbon NanoTube (CNT) is utilized for the SET island which produces the quantum capacitance (CQ). Its low value decreases the total capacitance (CT). Subsequently the coulomb blockade (CB) energy and the critical temperature are reduced. Moreover the resistance of the capped CNT as a two dimensional material is very low thus its effect on the total resistance can be neglected. The result of an investigation on the capped CNT SET tunnel junction shows that the tunneling time of electron into or out of island decreases therefore the operation speed of capped CNT SET increases. Furthermore both the resistance and the quantum capacitance are modeled and analyzed. Comparison studies of proposed models indicate that the capped CNT length and applied bias voltage play effective roles on the resistance. Additionally the capped CNT SET is simulated and the capped CNT SET stability diagrams are analyzed. The simulation result shows that the lower capped CNT length exhibits a smaller coulomb diamond regions. The lower CB range leads to faster capped CNT SET and a better reliability can be achieved.

Experimental Evidence for Wigner’s Tunneling Time

Tunneling of a particle through a barrier is one of the counter-intuitive properties of quantum mechanical motion. Thanks to advances in the generation of strong laser fields, new opportunities to dynamically investigate this process have been developed. In the so-called attoclock measurements the electron’s properties after tunneling are mapped on its emission direction. We investigate the tunneling dynamics and achieve a high sensitivity thanks to two refinements of the attoclock principle. Using near-IR wavelength we place firmly the ionization process in the tunneling regime. Furthermore, we compare the electron momentum distributions of two atomic species of slightly different atomic potentials (argon and krypton) being ionized under absolutely identical conditions. Experimentally, using a reaction microscope, we succeed in measuring the 3D electron momentum distributions for both targets simultaneously. Theoretically, the time resolved description of tunneling in strong-field ionization is studied using the leading quantum-mechanical Wigner treatment. A detailed analysis of the most probable photoelectron emission for Ar and Kr allows testing the theoretical models and a sensitive check of the electron initial conditions at the tunnel exit. The agreement between experiment and theory provides a clear evidence for a non-zero tunneling time delay and a non-vanishing longitudinal momentum at this point.

Understanding quantum tunneling using diffusion Monte Carlo simulations

In simple ferromagnetic quantum Ising models characterized by an effective double-well energy landscape the characteristic tunneling time of path-integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations has been shown to scale as the incoherent quantum-tunneling time, i.e., as $1/\Delta^2$, where $\Delta$ is the tunneling gap. Since incoherent quantum tunneling is employed by quantum annealers (QAs) to solve optimization problems, this result suggests there is no quantum advantage in using QAs w.r.t. quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations. A counterexample is the recently introduced shamrock model, where topological obstructions cause an exponential slowdown of the PIMC tunneling dynamics with respect to incoherent quantum tunneling, leaving the door open for potential quantum speedup, even for stoquastic models. In this work, we investigate the tunneling time of projective QMC simulations based on the diffusion Monte Carlo (DMC) algorithm without guiding functions, showing that it scales as $1/\Delta$, i.e., even more favorably than the incoherent quantum-tunneling time, both in a simple ferromagnetic system and in the more challenging shamrock model. However a careful comparison between the DMC ground-state energies and the exact solution available for the transverse-field Ising chain points at an exponential scaling of the computational cost required to keep a fixed relative error as the system size increases.

Low-Temperature Behavior of the Multicomponent Widom–Rowlison Model on Finite Square Lattices

We consider the multicomponent Widom-Rowlison with Metropolis dynamics, which describes the evolution of a particle system where $M$ different types of particles interact subject to certain hard-core constraints. Focusing on the scenario where the spatial structure is modeled by finite square lattices, we study the asymptotic behavior of this interacting particle system in the low-temperature regime, analyzing the tunneling times between its $M$ maximum-occupancy configurations, and the mixing time of the corresponding Markov chain. In particular, we develop a novel combinatorial method that, exploiting geometrical properties of the Widom-Rowlinson configurations on finite square lattices, leads to the identification of the timescale at which transitions between maximum-occupancy configurations occur and shows how this depends on the chosen boundary conditions and the square lattice dimensions.

On the Electronic Mechanisms of Specific Interactions between Surfactants and a Metal Surface

This work considers the electronic mechanism of specific interactions between a neutral surfactant and an uncharged metal surface during an elementary adsorption event. Special attention was paid to a role of the residual electronic interactions upon the exchange of electron density between the valence adsorbate orbital and the Fermi sea of metal electrons during adsorption. This interaction was simulated by the Coulomb electron–hole interactions through a potential barrier separating the surfactant and metal-electron systems. As this task concerns the problems associated with the Fermi edge singularities, the Nozieres–de Dominicis theory, which enables one to study an electron’s contribution to the energetics and kinetics of adsorption event, was used to interpret the donor–acceptor effects. The expressions of spectral characteristics of the localized electron density and tunneling time were analyzed in the context of the problem. There is a positive correlation between the surfactant adsorption parameters and the scattering phases of conductivity electrons screened in the metal by a potential field created by a hole at the valence surfactant orbital.

Transmission and tunneling time characteristics in light propagation through anisotropic double semiconductor layered structure

We considered electromagnetic wave propagating through double semiconductor layered structure with anisotropic permittivity. A model which allows the analysis of the permittivity is provided. Transmission, reflection and absorption characteristics of the structure were analyzed in frequency span of interest. Expressions for the dwell time and group delay were obtained for the considered barrier system and their values discussed. A relation which links dwell time with group delay is derived. The appearance of Hartman effect was confirmed.

Dwell time, Hartman effect and transport properties in a ferromagnetic phosphorene monolayer

In this paper, spin-dependent dwell time, spin Hartman effect and spin-dependent conductance were theoretically investigated through a rectangular barrier in the presence of an exchange field by depositing a ferromagnetic insulator on the phosphorene layer in the barrier region. The existence of the spin Hartman effect was shown for all energies (energies lower than barrier height) and all incident angles in phosphorene. We also compared our results of the dwell time in the phosphorene structure with similar research performed on graphene. We reported a significant difference between the tunneling time values of incident quasiparticles with spin-up and spin-down. We found that the barrier was almost transparent for incident quasiparticles with a wide range of incident angles and energies higher than the barrier height in phosphorene. We also found that the maximum spin-dependent transmission probability for energies higher than barrier height does not necessarily occur in the zero incident angle. In addition, we showed that the spin conductance for energies higher (lower) than barrier height fluctuates (decays) in terms of barrier thickness. We discovered that, in contrast to graphene, the Klein paradox does not occur in the normal incident in the phosphorene structure. Furthermore, the results demonstrated the achievement of good total conductance at certain thicknesses of the barrier for energies higher than the barrier height. This study could serve as a basis for investigations of the basic physics of tunneling mechanisms and also for using phosphorene as a spin polarizer in designing nanoelectronic devices.

On the tunneling time of ultracold atoms through a system of two mazer cavities

We study the resonant tunneling of ultraslow atoms through a system of high quality microwave cavities. We find that the phase tunneling time across the two coupled cavities exhibits more frequent resonances as compared to the single cavity interaction. The increased resonances are instrumental in the display of an alternate sub and superclassical character of the tunneling time along the momentum axis with increasing energies of the incident slow atoms. Here, the intercavity separation appears as an additional controlling parameter of the system that provides an efficient control of the superclassical behavior of the phase tunneling time. Further, we find that the phase time characteristics through two cavity system has the combined features of the tunneling through a double barrier and a double well arrangements.

Tunneling exit characteristics from classical backpropagation of an ionized electron wave packet

We investigate tunneling ionization of a single active electron with a strong and short laser pulse, circularly polarized. With the recently proposed backpropagation method, we can compare different criteria for the tunnel exit as well as popular approximations in strong-field physics on the same footing. Thereby, we trace back discrepancies in the literature regarding the tunneling time to inconsistent tunneling exit criteria. The main source of error is the use of a static ionization potential, which is, however, time dependent for a short laser pulse. A vanishing velocity in the instantaneous field direction as tunneling exit criterion offers a consistent alternative, since it does not require the knowledge of the instantaneous binding energy. Finally, we propose a mapping technique that links observables from attoclock experiments to the intrinsic tunneling exit time.

Dynamics of tunneling ionization using Bohmian mechanics

Recent attoclock experiments and theoretical studies regarding the strong-field ionization of atoms by few-cycle infrared pulses revealed new features that have attracted much attention. Here we investigate tunneling ionization and the dynamics of the electron probability using Bohmian Mechanics. We consider a one-dimensional problem to illustrate the underlying mechanisms of the ionization process. It is revealed that in the major part of the below-the-barrier ionization regime, in an intense and short infrared pulse, the electron does not tunnel \through" the entire barrier, but rather already starts from the classically forbidden region. Moreover, we highlight the correspondence between the probability of locating the electron at a particular initial position and its asymptotic momentum. Bohmian Mechanics also provides a natural definition of mean tunneling time and exit position, taking account of the time dependence of the barrier. Finally, we find that the electron can exit the barrier with significant kinetic energy, thereby corroborating the results of a recent study [Camus et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 119 (2017) 023201].

How to understand the tunneling in attosecond experiment?: Bohr–Einstein photon box Gedanken experiment, tunneling time and the wave particle duality

The measurement of the tunneling time (T-time) in today’s attosecond and strong field (low-frequency) experiments, despite its controversial discussion, offers a fruitful opportunity to understand time measurement and the time in quantum mechanics. In addition, as we will see in this work, a related controversial issue is the particulate nature of the radiation. The T-time in attosecond experiment and its different aspects and models, is discussed in this work, especially in relation to my model of real T-time (Kullie, 2015), where a good agreement with the experiment and an intriguing similarity to the Bohr–Einstein photon box Gedanken experiment was found. The tunneling process itself is still not well understood, but I am arguing that a scattering mechanism (by the laser wave packet) offers a possibility to understand the tunneling process in the tunneling region. This is related to the question about the corpuscular nature of light which is widely discussed in modern quantum optics experiments.

Under-the-Tunneling-Barrier Recollisions in Strong-Field Ionization.

A new pathway of strong-laser-field-induced ionization of an atom is identified which is based on recollisions under the tunneling barrier. With an amended strong-field approximation, the interference of the direct and the under-the-barrier recolliding quantum orbits are shown to induce a measurable shift of the peak of the photoelectron momentum distribution. The scaling of the momentum shift is derived relating the momentum shift to the tunneling delay time according to the Wigner concept. This allows us to extend the Wigner concept for the quasistatic tunneling time delay into the nonadiabatic domain. The obtained corrections to photoelectron momentum distributions are also relevant for state-of-the-art accuracy of strong-field photoelectron spectrograms in general.

Superluminal Tunneling of a Relativistic Half-Integer Spin Particle Through a Potential Barrier

This paper investigates the problem of a relativistic Dirac half-integer spin free particle tunneling through a rectangular quantum-mechanical barrier. If the energy difference between the barrier and the particle is positive, and the barrier width is large enough, there is proof that the tunneling may be superluminal. For first spinor components of particle and antiparticle states, the tunneling is always superluminal regardless the barrier width. Conversely, the second spinor components of particle and antiparticle states may be either subluminal or superluminal depending on the barrier width. These results derive from studying the tunneling time in terms of phase time. For the first spinor components of particle and antiparticle states, it is always negative while for the second spinor components of particle and antiparticle states, it is always positive, whatever the height and width of the barrier. In total, the tunneling time always remains positive for particle states while it becomes negative for antiparticle ones. Furthermore, the phase time tends to zero, increasing the potential barrier both for particle and antiparticle states. This agrees with the interpretation of quantum tunneling that the Heisenberg uncertainty principle provides. This study’s results are innovative with respect to those available in the literature. Moreover, they show that the superluminal behaviour of particles occurs in those processes with high-energy confinement.

Angular momentum distribution in strong-field frustrated tunneling ionization

Using the classical-trajectory Monte Carlo model, we have theoretically studied the angular momentum distribution of frustrated tunneling ionization (FTI) of atoms in strong laser fields. Our results show that the angular momentum distribution of the FTI events exhibits a double-hump structure. With this classical model, we back traced the tunneling coordinates, i.e., the tunneling time and initial transverse momentum at tunneling ionization. It is shown that for the events tunneling ionized at the rising edge of the electric field, the final angular momentum exhibits a strong dependence on the initial transverse momentum at tunneling. While for the events ionized at the falling edge, there is a relatively harder recollision between the returning electron and the parent ion, leading to the angular momentum losing the correlation with the initial transverse momentum. Our study suggests that the angular momentum of the FTI events could be manipulated by controlling the initial coordinates of the tunneling ionization.