ELECTRON-TUNNELING IN A VARIABLE ELECTRODYNAMIC ENVIRONMENT

An influence of the electrodynamic environment on electron tunneling rate beyond the limits of the tunneling Hamiltonian method is investigated. The rate is shown to be sensitive to the environment electrodynamic properties on two frequency scales. These scales are determined by the tunneling traversal time and by the maximum energy loss of the electron during the tunneling event respectively. © 1990.