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arXiv:quant-ph/0203091 · Journal de Physique I

Complex-barrier tunnelling times

Fabio Raciti, Giovanni Salesi

Published Dec 1, 1994• 17 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

In this paper we calculate the analytic expression of the phase time for the scattering of an electron off a complex square barrier. As is well known the (negative) imaginary part of the potential takes into account, phenomenologically, the absorption. We investigate the so-called Hartman-Fletcher effect, and find that it is suppressed by the presence of a (not negligible) imaginary potential. In fact, when a sufficiently large absorption is present, the asymptotical transmission speed is finite. Actually, the tunnelling time does increase linearly with the barrier width. A recent optical experiment seems to be in agreement with our theoretical previsions.

DOI
10.1051/jp1:1994220

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In this paper we calculate the analytic expression of the phase time for the scattering of an electron off a complex square barrier. As is well known the (negative) imaginary part of the potential takes into account, phenomenologically, the absorption. We investigate the so-called Hartman-Fletcher effect, and find that it is suppressed by the presence of a (not negligible) imaginary potential. In fact, when a sufficiently large absorption is present, the asymptotical transmission speed is finite. Actually, the tunnelling time does increase linearly with the barrier width. A recent optical experiment seems to be in agreement with our theoretical previsions.
The time of passage of the transmitted wave packet in a tunneling collision of a quantum particle with a square potential barrier becomes independent of the barrier width in a range of barrier thickness. This is the Hartman effect, which has been frequently associated with ``superluminality.'' A fundamental limitation on the effect is set by nonrelativistic ``causality conditions.'' We demonstrate first that the causality conditions impose more restrictive bounds on the negative time delays (time advancements) when no bound states are present. These restrictive bounds are in agreement with a naive, and generally false, causality argument based on the positivity of the ``extrapolated phase time,'' one of the quantities proposed to characterize the duration of the barrier's traversal. Nevertheless, square wells may in fact lead to much larger advancements than square barriers. We point out that close to the thresholds of new bound states, the time advancement increases considerably, while, at the same time, the transmission probability is large, which facilitates the possible observation of the enhanced time advancement.
The times spent by an electron in a scattering event or tunnelling through a potential barrier are investigated using a method based on the absorption probabilities. The reflection and transmission times derived from this method are equal to the local Larmor times if the transmission and reflection probability amplitudes are complex analytic functions of the complex potential. The numerical results show that they coincide with the phase times except as the incident electron energy approaches zero or when the transmission probability is too small. If the imaginary potential covers the whole space the tunnelling times are again equal to the phase times. The results show that the tunnelling times based on absorption probabilities are the best of the various candidates.
We calculate the time taken by a wave packet to tunnel through a series of complex barrier potentials using stationary phase method to show its saturation (Hartman-Fletcher effect) with number of barriers in various situations. We numerically study the effect of the coupling between the elastic and inelastic channels, width of the individual barrier, separation between the consecutive barriers on the saturation of tunneling time. Nature of HF effect has further been investigated for more realistic barriers with random inelasticity and also for emissive inelastic channels.
In the First Part of this paper [that was submitted for pub. in 1991 and appeared in print in Phys. Reports 214 (1992) 339] we critically review the main theoretical definitions and calculations of the sub-barrier tunnelling and reflection times. Moreover, within conventional QM, we propose a new definition of such durations, on the basis of a recent general formalism of ours. At last, we discuss a surprising result: that QM predicts tunnelling through opaque barriers to take place with Superluminal group-velocities. In the Second Part [that appeared in print later, in J. de Physique-I 5 (1995) 1351] we, e.g., present the results of some numerical calculations (based on our equations) on the penetration and return times during tunnelling INSIDE a rectangular potential barrier, and set forth suitable definitions also of the variances, or dispersions, for the transmission and reflection time-durations. The numerical evaluations confirm that our approach implied, and implies, the existence of Superluminal tunnelling (that we called "Hartman effect"): an effect that in these days is receiving --at Cologne, Berkeley, Florence and Vienna-- indirect, but interesting, experimental verifications. More detailed reviews of the same topics are in the LANL Archive cond-mat/9802126 (and in an Appendix to physics/9712051, where the data are summarized of the experiments that --in four different sectors of physics-- seem to indicate the existence of Superluminal motions).
We investigate the tunneling time of a wave packet propagating through a non-Hermitian potential Vr − iVi in space-fractional quantum mechanics. By applying the stationary phase method, we derive a closed-form expression for the tunneling time for this system. This study presents the first investigation of tunneling time at the interplay of non-Hermitian quantum mechanics and space-fractional quantum mechanics. The variation in tunneling time as the system transitions from a real to a complex potential is analyzed. We demonstrate that the tunneling time exhibits a dependence on the barrier width d in the limit d → ∞, showing the absence of the Hartman effect. A particularly striking feature of our findings is the potential manifestation of the Hartman effect for a specific combination of the absorption component Vi and the Levy index α. This behavior arises from the fact that the presence of the absorption component Vi leads to a monotonic increase in tunneling time with barrier thickness, whereas the Levy index α reduces the tunneling time. The interplay of these contrasting influences facilitates the emergence of the Hartman effect under a specific combination of Vi and the fractional parameter α.