Abstract
In previous studies, by the methods of wave mechanics, of one-dimensional motion of particles in cases in which there are intervals in which the value of the potential energy function exceeds the value of the total energy , attention has been confined to wave functions of the form . In the present note wave packets are considered, instead of these trains of waves.
The function is taken as follows: A wave function is set up which initially represents a wave packet moving toward the point from the left. The separation of the incident packet into a reflected packet and a transmitted packet is studied. It is found that the transmitted packet appears at the point at about the time at which the incident packet reaches the point , so that there is no appreciable delay in the transmission of the packet through the barrier.
- Received 14 January 1932
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.40.621
©1932 American Physical Society