- #1
omiros
- 30
- 0
Hello everybody, I am a first year student and I have a question about tunneling.
If we have an electron which is bound by an atom. And that electron has a high probability to tunnel through the barrier that keeps it confined. So it manages to 'escape' from the atom.
Shouldn't its energy change after that? Classically thinking of that thing its potential energy would change dramatically as it would not be bound by the atom anymore. So the main question is, what happens to its energy and if it remains the same, what changes in the electrons 'structure' (speed, wavelength etc)?
If we have an electron which is bound by an atom. And that electron has a high probability to tunnel through the barrier that keeps it confined. So it manages to 'escape' from the atom.
Shouldn't its energy change after that? Classically thinking of that thing its potential energy would change dramatically as it would not be bound by the atom anymore. So the main question is, what happens to its energy and if it remains the same, what changes in the electrons 'structure' (speed, wavelength etc)?