Quantum tunneling mystery solved after 100 years—and it involves a surprise collision
Recently, Professor Dong Eon Kim from POSTECH's Department of Physics and Max Planck Korea-POSTECH Initiative and his research team have succeeded in unraveling for the first time the mystery of the 'electron tunneling' process, a core concept in quantum mechanics, and confirmed it through experiments. This study was published in the international journal Physical Review Letters and is attracting attention as a key to unlocking the long-standing mystery of 'electron tunneling,' which has remained unsolved for over 100 years.
While the idea of teleporting through walls may sound like something out of a movie, such phenomena actually occur in the atomic world. This phenomenon, called 'quantum tunneling,' involves electrons passing through energy barriers (walls) that they seemingly cannot surmount with their energy, as if digging a tunnel through them.
This phenomenon is the principle by which semiconductors, i. e., core components of smartphones and computers, operate, and is also essential for nuclear fusion, the process that produces light and energy in the sun. However, until now, while some understanding existed about what happens before and after an electron passes through a tunnel, the exact behavior of the electron as it traverses the barrier remained unclear. We know the entrance and exit of the tunnel, but what happens inside has remained a mystery.
