Relativistic tunneling and accelerated transmission

Abstract

We obtain the solutions for the tunneling zone of a one-dimensional electrostatic potential in the relativistic (Dirac to Klein-Gordon) wave equation regime when the incoming wave packet exhibits the possibility of being almost totally transmitted through the potential barrier. The conditions for the occurrence of accelerated and, eventually, superluminal tunneling transmission probabilities are all quantified and the problematic superluminal interpretation originated from the study based on non-relativistic dynamics of tunneling is overcome. The treatment of the problem suggests revealing insights into condensed-matter experiments using electrostatic barriers in single- and bi-layer graphene, for which the accelerated tunneling effect deserves a more careful investigation.