Tunneling is a fundamental process in quantum mechanics, involving the ability of a wave packet to cross an energy barrier that would be impossible to overcome by classical means. At the atomic level, this tunneling phenomenon significantly influences molecular biology. It aids in speeding up enzyme reactions, causes spontaneous DNA mutations, and initiates the sequences of events that lead to the sense of smell.
Photoelectron tunneling is a key process in light-induced chemical reactions, charge and energy transfer, and radiation emission. The size of optoelectronic chips and other devices has been close to the sub-nanometer atomic scale, and the quantum tunneling effects between different channels would be significantly enhanced.
The real-time imaging of electron tunneling dynamics in complex has important scientific significance for promoting the development of tunneling transistors and ultrafast optoelectronic devices. The effect of neighboring atoms on electron tunneling dynamics in the complex is one of the key scientific issues in the fields of quantum physics, quantum chemistry, nanoelectronics, etc.
In a new paper published in Light Science & Application, a team of scientists from Hainan University and East China Normal University designed a van der Waals complex Ar-Kr+ as a prototype system with an internuclear distance of 0.39 nm to track the electron tunneling via the neighboring atom in the system of sub-nanometer scale.
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