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A lot of popular level explanations introduce the idea of tunneling by saying that "in principle" a person in one room can "find themselves" in the next room, i.e. one can tunnel through a wall
Of course, the presenter then hastens to clarify that this is so unlikely that we would have to wait longer than the age of the universe in order to have some chance of witnessing a macroscopic tunneling event.
On the other hand, in physics texts we only see examples of tunneling where the barrier is an energy hill rather than a wall composed of atoms. The wavefunctipn has a non zero value beyond the potential barrier.
So my question is, is it at all possible for tunneling to happen through a material barrier? I'm thinking of, say, an atom or small molecule tunneling through a film that is one atom thick. (But assiming a scenario where classical diffusion would not occur). Would the wavefunction ooze through such a film?
Of course, the presenter then hastens to clarify that this is so unlikely that we would have to wait longer than the age of the universe in order to have some chance of witnessing a macroscopic tunneling event.
On the other hand, in physics texts we only see examples of tunneling where the barrier is an energy hill rather than a wall composed of atoms. The wavefunctipn has a non zero value beyond the potential barrier.
So my question is, is it at all possible for tunneling to happen through a material barrier? I'm thinking of, say, an atom or small molecule tunneling through a film that is one atom thick. (But assiming a scenario where classical diffusion would not occur). Would the wavefunction ooze through such a film?
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