Symmetry-induced tunneling in one-dimensional disordered potentials

Abstract

A nontraditional mechanism of tunneling at macroscopic distances is proposed for a wave packet localized in a one-dimensional disordered potential with mirror symmetry, V (-x) =V (x). Unlike quantum tunneling through a regular potential barrier, which occurs only at the energies lower than the barrier height, the proposed mechanism of tunneling exists even for weak white-noise-like scattering potentials. It also exists in classical circuits of resonant contours with random resonant frequencies. The latter property may be used as a new method of secure communication, which does not require coding and decoding of the transmitting signal. © 2008 The American Physical Society.