Abstract: A new approach to calculating
electron tunneling, which can be applied to the one-dimensional potential barr
ier with an arbitrary profile, is presented. In the approach, the electron trans
mission coefficient is obtained from the solution of the Schrodinger equation wh
ich can be numerically solved with the Numerov algorithm. In order to test the a
ccuracy of the algorithm, the transmission coefficients of the electron tunnelin
g through a double-barrier and a triangular barrier are calculated respectively
. A comparison of numerical results with corresponding analytical values shows t
hat this approach is of very high accuracy.

Key words: tunneling effect, transmission coefficient, Numerov algorithm, potential barrier