TUNNELING DYNAMICS OF SQUEEZED STATES IN A POTENTIAL WELL

WKB calculations have revealed that tunneling dynamics of localized wa ve packets in simple potential wells depend sensitively on the degree of squeezing of the wave function. Squeezed states are shown to tunnel more slowly in general than eigenstates of the well and states which are initially localized near the bottom of a well have much lower tunn eling rates than states localized at the sides of the well; The depend ence of tunneling time on energy also exhibits steps related to quasi- bound-state energies in a complex way. Additionally, modulations in th e tunneling probability correlate with the motion of the squeezed wave packet in the: well. These results have implications both for the dyn amics of squeezed radiation fields and squeezed matter states, and exa mples of applications to controlled vibrational-state chemistry, ultra low-noise measurements of weak signals with Josephson junctions, and o ptical crystals are discussed.