Transient effects in time-dependent Tunneling

An exact analytic solution of the time-dependent Schrodinger equation with cutoff wave initial conditions, that goes into the stationary solution at asymptotically long times, is used to investigate the transient behavior in the time evolution of the probability density along the internal and transmitted regions of a potential barrier. The approach involves the complex poles and residues (resonant states) of the outgoing Green's function of the problem. The solution exhibits absence of propagation along the classically forbidden internal region of the potential, and along the transmitted region it splits into two propagating structures. One of them is a transient effect describing the earliest response of the system to the initial condition whereas the other structure evolves towards the stationary solution.