Interfacial Electron Tunneling

TLDR: The theory of radioactive α particle decay was proposed by Gurney and Condon in 1929 as discussed by the authors, where the total energy of the particle is less than its potential energy of binding to the nucleus.

Abstract: A complete structure of quantum mechanics materialized in the brief period between 1925 and 1928 with the development of matrix mechanics by Heisenberg in 1925 and wave mechanics by Schrodinger in 1926.1,2 Gamow1–3 in 1928 first put forward the theory of radioactive α particle decay on the basis of quantum mechanics. It was made independently by Ronald Gurney and Condon4 in 1929. The theory of radioactive decay provides one of the more important examples of the application of the idea of tunneling; i. e., it concerns the escape of α particles from a nucleus when the total energy of the particle is less than its potential energy of binding to the nucleus.