{"id":237888,"date":"2026-05-28T03:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/quantum-tunnelling"},"modified":"2026-05-28T03:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T08:54:02","slug":"quantum-tunnelling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/05\/quantum-tunnelling","title":{"rendered":"Quantum tunnelling"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-right: 20px\"><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/quantum-tunnelling.gif\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In physics, <b>quantum <i>tunnel <\/i>ling<\/b>, <b>barrier penetration<\/b>, or simply <b><i>tunnel <\/i>ling<\/b> is a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quantum_mechanics\" title=\"Quantum mechanics\">quantum mechanical<\/a> phenomenon in which an object such as an electron or atom passes through a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Potential_barrier\" title=\"Potential barrier\">potential energy barrier<\/a> that, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Classical_mechanics\" title=\"Classical mechanics\">classical mechanics<\/a>, should not be passable due to the object not having sufficient energy to pass or surmount the barrier.<\/p>\n<p>Tunnelling is a consequence of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Matter_wave\" title=\"Matter wave\">wave nature of matter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quantum_indeterminacy\" title=\"Quantum indeterminacy\">quantum indeterminacy<\/a>. The quantum <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wave_function\" title=\"Wave function\">wave function<\/a> describes the states of a particle or other <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Physical_system\" title=\"Physical system\">physical system<\/a> and wave equations such as the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Schr%C3%B6dinger_equation\" title=\"Schr\u00f6dinger equation\">Schr\u00f6dinger equation<\/a> describe their evolution. In a system with a short, narrow potential barrier, a small part of wavefunction can appear outside of the barrier representing a probability for <i>tunnel <\/i>ling through the barrier.<\/p>\n<p>Since the probability of transmission of a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Wave_packet\" title=\"Wave packet\">wave packet<\/a> through a barrier decreases exponentially with the barrier height, the barrier width, and the <i>tunnel <\/i>ling particle\u2019s mass, <i>tunnel <\/i>ling is seen most prominently in low-mass particles such as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Electron\" title=\"Electron\">electrons<\/a> <i>tunnel <\/i>ling through atomically narrow barriers. However <i>tunnel <\/i>ling has been observed with protons and even atoms and <i>tunnel <\/i>ling has been used to explain physical effects with particles this large.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In physics, quantum tunnel ling, barrier penetration, or simply tunnel ling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an object such as an electron or atom passes through a potential energy barrier that, according to classical mechanics, should not be passable due to the object not having sufficient energy to pass or surmount the barrier. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-237888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-information-science","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}