Quantum-shutter approach to tunneling time scales with wave packets

Abstract

The quantum-shutter approach to tunneling time scales [G. García-Calderon and A. Rubio, Phys. Rev. A 55, 3361 (1997)], which uses a cutoff plane wave as the initial condition, is extended to consider certain type of wave packet initial conditions. An analytical expression for the time-evolved wave function is derived. The time-domain resonance, the peaked structure of the probability density (as the function of time) at the exit of the barrier, originally found with the cutoff plane wave initial condition, is studied with the wave packet initial conditions. It is found that the time-domain resonance is not very sensitive to the width of the packet when the transmission process occurs in the tunneling regime.