Electron tunnelling through a quantifiable barrier of variable width

This is the first study of electron tunnelling through a quantifiable barrier of adjustable width. We find quantitative agreement between the measured and calculated tunnelling probability with no adjustable constants. The tunnel barrier is a thin film of 3He on Cs1 which it wets. We excite photoele...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of physics. Conference series 2009-02, Vol.150 (2), p.022098
Main Authors: Wyatt, A F G, Bromberger, H, Klier, J, Leiderer, P, Zech, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Electron tunneling
Mathematical analysis
Photoelectrons
Physics
Thickness
Thin films
Tunnels
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Summary:This is the first study of electron tunnelling through a quantifiable barrier of adjustable width. We find quantitative agreement between the measured and calculated tunnelling probability with no adjustable constants. The tunnel barrier is a thin film of 3He on Cs1 which it wets. We excite photoelectrons which have to tunnel through the barrier to escape. The image potential must be included in calculating the barrier and hence the tunnelling current. This has been a debatable point until now. We confirm that an electron has a potential of 1.0 eV in liquid 3He for short times before a bubble forms. We show that the thickness of the 3He is given by thermodynamics for films of thickness at least down to 3 monolayers.
ISSN:1742-6596
1742-6588
1742-6596
DOI:10.1088/1742-6596/150/2/022098