The Tunneling Time of an Electron

Abstract

There is a widely spread misconception regarding the physical significance of the various tunneling times currently used to describe metal-insulator-metal tunneling phenomena. Using quantum mechanics, the transition time of an electron tunneling from a state on one side of the barrier to a state on the other side can be determined. This time is the period of interaction between the electron and the barrier, since before and after the transition, the electron is in a quantum state of one of the metals. Furthermore, the RC time constant of the sandwich-like device and the electron transition or interaction time are equivalent representations of the same physical parameter. But none of these times is the quasiclassical "transmission time" analyzed by Hartman, which has become widely accepted as the electron-barrier interaction time, although this was clearly not his intention. In this communication we wish to point out that it is the (quantum mechanical) transition time which is the characteristic time of tunneling phenomena.

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