# Quantum Decoherence Phenomena in the Thermal Assisted Tunneling

We propose a novel approach to the problem of a transition from quantum to classical behavior in mesoscopic spin systems. This paper is intended to demonstrate that main cause of such transitions is quantum decoherence which appear as a result of a thermal interaction between spin system and its environment. We shall consider semiclassical model where spin problem has been mapped onto particle problem. In such a case, particle will be localized in one of two metastable potential wells, and transitions between this states can occur either due to over-barrier transition or via quantum tunneling. It is necessary to emphasize that thermal activation couldn’t appear in pure form as a classical phenomena even in semiclassical limit: escape is determined not only by tunneling but also by the over-barrier reflection in the case when particle obtain from the environment energy, large then height of the barrier. We shell use the next computational scheme. Consider an ensemble of particles localized in potential wells. Due to interaction with environment, each of the particles can obtain some energy $`E`$. It is clear that in this case , either due to tunneling or due to over-barrier transition, probability of escape $`P`$ will be a function of corresponding magnitude $`E`$: $`P=P(E)`$. If population for given $`E`$ in ensemble is $`n(E)`$ than for the total escape probability one obtain $`P_t=\frac{1}{N}n(E)P(E)𝑑E`$, where $`N`$ is a number of particles in ensemble. Since population $`n(E)`$ is also a function of a temperature $`T`$ we can consider $`P_t`$ as a function of $`T`$ too. We want to emphasize again that for such consideration, $`P_t(T)`$ will be absolutely smooth, without any sharp turns, as long as $`n(T)`$ and $`P(E)`$ is smooth function.

But this picture strikingly changes when one take into account the possibility of the coherence destruction by the interaction with environment. It is well known that environment induces a dynamical localization of the quantum state into a generalized coherent state. In particular, in the double-well potential, for specific values of external field’s strength and frequency, tunneling is coherently destroyed, i.e., a localized packet can be built as a superposition of two degenerate states, which remains localized ”forever” in one well. We study the behavior of semiclassical system interacting with a classical environment represented by an infinite set of harmonic oscillators with a frequencies $`\varpi .`$ For each particle in our ensemble escape probability will be now $`P^{}=PJ_0(\frac{2V}{\omega })`$, where $`J_0(x)`$ is the zero-order Bessel function. $`V`$, the magnitude of interaction with a bath, is defined as $`V=Q(\varpi )\varpi C,`$ where $`Q(\varpi )`$ is a population for the frequency $`\varpi `$, and $`C`$ is a coupling constant, which is an adjusting parameter in considered case.

Using computational scheme described above, one can now to calculate total escape probability with taking into account decoherence effects. In Fig. 1 we have plotted for example results of such a calculations for the mesoscopic system $`CrNi_6`$ (curve 1). It is visible, that quantum decoherence essentially changes behavior of $`P_t(T)`$ at low temperatures: in contrast to usual thermal assisted tunneling (monotonic curve 2) the decoherence leads to the origin of the irregularities of $`P_t(T)`$ for $`T10`$ K. In Fig.1 we also plotted for comparison results of experiments (signed as ”+”), and results of computations for the ”pure” classical thermal activation (curve 3). Similarity between curve 1 and experimental data seems to be very encouraging.