A SIMPLE-MODEL FOR RESONANT-TUNNELING IN MULTIWELL SYSTEMS

An approximate scheme is introduced for describing tunnelling in weakl y coupled one-dimensional (or separable) systems. The formalism is use d to analyze the time-dependent tunnelling behaviour of multiwell-syst ems, For systems consisting of a more than 3 wells with identical sing le-well energies and well separations, an initially localized situatio n is shown to delocalize due to interference effects. The maximum amou nt of first-pass transfer through such a system is observed to decreas e slowly with the number of wells (to ca. 65% for N = 20). Through a j udicious choice of well separations, these interference effects can be eliminated and complete periodic particle transfer can be achieved.