quantum tunneling

Scientific  

1. A quantum mechanical effect in which particles have a finite probability of crossing an energy barrier, such as the energy needed to break a bond with another particle, even though the particle's energy is less than the energy barrier. Quantum tunneling has no counterpart in classical mechanics, in which a particle can never cross an energy barrier with a higher energy level than the particle has. The emission of alpha rays in radioactive decay is a case of quantum tunneling; though the alpha particles are strongly bound to the nucleus and don't have as much energy as the bond does, they still have a finite probability of escaping the nucleus. The design of transistors and many diodes makes use of this effect.

2. See also radioactivity

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Example Sentences

Quantum was thrust into the spotlight yet again when the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to a team of scientists for their work on quantum tunneling, the same mechanism that underpins the technology being developed by companies like Rigetti Computing.

From Barron's

The knots ultimately unraveled through quantum tunneling, a process in which particles cross energy barriers that would be insurmountable in classical physics, as if they were passing through a wall.

From Science Daily

Martinis was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in physics, alongside Clarke and Devoret, for his doctoral project, a series of experiments in the mid-1980s that proved quantum tunneling was possible with large objects, which became the basis for the development of quantum computers as well as much of the current research in that field.

From Los Angeles Times

However, the new study shows that these flips can also occur quantum mechanically through a process called quantum tunneling.

From Science Daily

In addition to quantum tunneling, the new research shows a co-tunneling effect, in which groups of tunneling electrons are communicating with each other to drive the electron spins to flip in the same direction.

From Science Daily