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arXiv:1404.0750 · American Journal of Physics

Tunneling through one-dimensional piecewise-constant potential barriers

Siddhant Das

Published Jun 23, 2015• 8 citations

Abstract

In this paper, we examine transmission through one-dimensional potential barriers that are piecewise constant. The transfer matrix approach is adopted, and a new formula is derived for multiplying long matrix sequences that not only leads to an elegant representation of the wave function but also results in much faster computation than earlier methods. The proposed method covers a broad spectrum of potentials, of which multi-barrier systems are special cases. The procedure is illustrated with a finite lattice of nonuniform rectangular barriers—non-uniformity being a novel feature, as the uniform case has been solved exactly by Griffiths and Steinke. For the nonuniform multi-barrier problem, the intervening wells strongly influence the transmission probability. Surprisingly, we find that the wells act “individually,” i.e., their influence is a function only of their width and is independent of their exact locations in a multi-barrier system. This finding leads to an observation that we have termed the “alias effect.” The exact solutions are supplemented with asymptotic formulas.

DOI: 10.1119/1.4916834

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A simple yet exact method of solving the Schrodinger equation across an arbitrary one-dimensional piecewise-linear potential is described. It is based on the analytical solution of the Schrodinger equation across a linear potential, where the solution can be expressed as a linear combination of the Airy functions. Proper boundary conditions are imposed at the interface between adjacent linear intervals of the potential, and a transfer-matrix procedure is utilized in the derivation. The quantum mechanical transmission coefficient across a potential barrier and eigenenergies of a potential well can also be easily calculated using this method.

The paper introduces a simplified and exact transfer matrix formalism.That can be used to study a series of one dimensional potential barrier problems with only two general purpose matrices one to propagate a wave function over a region of constant potential,the other to take a wave function over a discontinuity in a potential.Not only are standard results recovered for one potential barrier problem with this technique,but it is easy to extend this formalism into two,even more many potential barier cases,which facilitates wide ranging explorations of one dimensional quantum mechanics.

We derive analytic expressions of the recursive solutions to the Schrödinger's equation by means of a cutoff potential technique for one-dimensional piecewise constant potentials. These solutions provide a method for accurately determining the transmission probabilities as well as the wave function in both classically accessible region and inaccessible region for any barrier potentials. It is also shown that the energy eigenvalues and the wave functions of bound states can be obtained for potential-well structures by exploiting this method. Calculational results of illustrative examples are shown in order to verify this method for treating barrier and potential-well problems.

A transfer-matrix technique is formulated to treat the scattering of a particle incident on a piecewise constant potential and interacting with an oscillatory field. A study of tunneling through a single barrier shows in the transmission probabilities, for absorption or emission of quanta from the field, replicas below the barrier of the overbarrier field-free transmissivity, with its resonant structure. In the case of resonant tunneling through a double barrier, an appropriate choice of parameters gives evidence for a change in the regime, with inhibition of transmission at a resonance energy of the intermediate well when the period of the field approaches the lifetime of the resonant state. The technique can be extended to treat scattering of a particle by more general potentials in the presence of an oscillatory perturbation. As an illustrative example, the transmissivity as a function of a bias potential in a double-barrier structure is calculated.

Proton transfer plays a key role in the applications of advanced energy materials as well as in the functionalities of biological systems. In this work, based on the transfer matrix method, we study the quantum effects of proton transfer in a series of one-dimensional (1D) model potentials and numerically calculate the quantum probability of transferring across single and double barriers (wells). In the case of single barriers, when the incident energies of protons are above the barrier height, the quantum oscillations in the transmission coefficients depend on the geometric shape of the barriers. It is found that atomic resonant tunneling (ART) not only presents in the rectangular single well and rectangular double barriers as expected, but also exists in the other types of potential wells and double barriers. For hetero-structured double barriers, there is no resonant tunneling in the classical forbidden zone, i.e., in the case when the incident energy (E i) is lower than the barrier height (E b). Furthermore, we have provided generalized analysis on the characteristics of transmission coefficients of hetero-structured rectangular double barriers.

We show that Bogoliubov equations in one-dimensional systems with piecewise constant potentials can be always solved. In particular, we analyze in detail the case where the condensate wavefunction is a real-valued function, and give the explicit expressions for wavefunctions of Bogoliubov excitations. By means of these solutions, we consider transmission and reflection properties of Bogoliubov excitations for two types of potential, namely, a rectangular barrier and a potential step. The results yield simple and exact examples of anomalous tunneling effect and quantum evaporation.