Tunneling of a diatomic molecule

Abstract

We summarize our study of a diatomic homonuclear molecule incident upon a potential barrier in one dimension [G.L. Goodvin and M.R.A. Shegelski. Phys. Rev. A, 71, 032719 (2005).]. We study various initial states for the molecule and allow transitions between vibrational states of the molecule during the process of tunneling. By applying an elegant method to solve this problem, we show that transmission resonances occur in several cases and that adding more binding energy levels for the molecule can tend to decrease the probability of tunneling. We also discuss the extension of our results to more realistic three-dimensional and experimental systems.PACS Nos.: 34.20.Cf, 03.65.Xp, 34.20.Gj, 34.50.Pi