Physical Review A

Three-dimensional tunneling of a diatomic molecule incident upon a potential barrier

Glen L. Goodvin, Mark R. A. Shegelski

Published Oct 24, 2005• 23 citations

Abstract

We study a diatomic homonuclear molecule incident upon a potential barrier in three dimensions. We study various initial states for the molecule and allow transitions between rotational states of the molecule during the process of tunneling. By applying an elegant method to solve this problem we show that transmission resonances occur in several cases and that adding more binding energy levels for the molecule can tend to decrease the probability of tunneling. We also find that the probability of transmission can be enhanced by the addition of a second potential barrier. These results are in qualitative agreement with those found for the tunneling of a molecule in a one-dimensional model studied previously.

DOI: 10.1103/physreva.72.042713

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