Quantum Tunneling Is So Quick It Could Be Instantaneous And Could Be Breaking The Speed Of Light
Among the strange features of quantum physics is that the phenomenon called quantum tunneling, where a particle overcomes a barrier that may be impassable in other types of physics. Generations of physics students are taught this phenomenon with analogies like objects passing through solid walls, but the time this process takes has always been a mystery. a brand new study has set an edge on the time it takes, one so short the method could also be instantaneous, during which case these particles would be exceeding the speed of sunshine.
Tunneling certainly happens so quickly it's hard to live. Recent efforts have used heavier atoms, necessitating indirect measurements. Dr. Igor Litvinyuk of Griffith University told IFLScience the Australian Attosecond Science Facility is that the only place within the world with all three kinds of equipment required to live the time it takes electrons to tunnel from the grip of hydrogen atoms.
Litvinyuk helped put that combination to use, reporting in Nature that the method takes no quite 1.8 attoseconds. An attosecond is 10-18 or a billionth of a second. “It’s hard to understand how short that's, but it takes an electron a couple of hundred attoseconds to orbit a nucleus in an atom,” said co-author Professor Robert Sang in an exceeding statement.
Tunneling time sets a limit on how briskly transistors could theoretically switch, so having such a brief time makes ultra-fast computers more realistic.
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