That's fantastic. I'm a complete amateur, so I have to ask for clarification -- is the phenomenon behind the tunneling of en electron through a semiconductor, as described in the article, the same one involved in the quantum tunneling of an electron into a proton? Or are the two processes completely different, operating at different scales? The article is describing the tuning of the rate of tunneling of electrons using "cavity photons."
What is the wavelength of the photons being used in the experiment being discussed, and what is its relationship to the energy barrier being overcome? What happens if you increase the wavelength significantly? Eric On Sat, Apr 7, 2012 at 11:33 AM, Ron Wormus <prot...@frii.com> wrote: > <http://www.sciencedaily.com/**releases/2012/04/120405142156.**htm<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405142156.htm> > > > > According to team leader, Professor Jeremy Baumberg, "the trick to telling > electrons how to pass through walls, is to now marry them with light." > This marriage is fated because the light is in the form of cavity photons, > packets of light trapped to bounce back and forth between mirrors which > sandwich the electrons oscillating through their wall. > > Ron > >
