The effect of inelastic processes on tunneling

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified, exact numerical method for analyzing how inelastic processes like phonon interactions affect electron tunneling, applicable to complex multi-channel and multi-site systems.

Contribution

It presents a novel, exact numerical approach that maps many-body tunneling problems onto a one-body problem, simplifying analysis of inelastic effects.

Findings

Method enables solving complex tunneling problems with multiple phonons.

Allows analysis of systems with multiple sites and channels.

Provides essentially exact numerical solutions.

Abstract

We study an electron that interacts with phonons or other linear or nonlinear excitations as it resonantly tunnels. The method we use is based on mapping a many-body problem in a large variational space exactly onto a one-body problem. The method is conceptually simpler than previous Green's function approaches, and allows the essentially exact numerical solution of much more general problems. We solve tunneling problems with transverse channels, multiple sites coupled to phonons, and multiple phonon degrees of freedom and excitations.