Is the momentum of a tunneling electron real or imaginary? An alternative description of the tunneling process

Pierre Guéret

doi:10.1016/0038-1098(91)90493-F

Solid State Communications

Paper

01 Jan 1991

Is the momentum of a tunneling electron real or imaginary? An alternative description of the tunneling process

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Abstract

The momentum of a tunneling electron is real if its rest mass in the barrier acts as a reservoir which can trade rest energy for kinetic energy in accordance with special relativity. The Büttiker-Landauer expression for the tunneling time follows directly from this thermodynamic picture. © 1991.

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