Paper detail

Transmission of correlated Gaussian packets through a delta-potential

We study the evolution of the most general initial Gaussian packet with nonzero correlation coefficient between the coordinate and momentum operators in the presence of a repulsive delta potential barrier, using the known exact propagator of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation. For the initial packet localized far enough from the barrier, we define the transmission coefficient as the probability of discovering the particle in the whole semi-axis on the other side of the barrier. It appears that the asymptotical transmission coefficient (calculated in the large time limit) depends on two dimensionless parameters: the normalized ratio of the potential strength to the initial mean value of momentum and the ratio of the initial momentum dispersion to the initial mean value of momentum. For small values of the second parameter the result is reduced to the well known formula for the transparency of the delta barrier, obtained in the plane wave approximation by solving the stationary Schrödinger equation. For big values of the second parameter, the transmission coefficient can be much bigger than that calculated in the plane wave approximation. For a fixed initial spread of the packet in the coordinate space, the initial correlation coefficient influences the transparency of the barrier only indirectly, through the increase of the initial momentum dispersion.