Electron tunneling through a dielectric barrier is considered with special attention given to
questions relevant for STM experiments in dielectric liquids. The effect of the barrier
dielectric response on the tunneling probability is studied using the effective Hamiltonian
formalism for the polarization dynamics in the barrier, and two different theoretical
approaches for the calculation of the tunneling probability: A generalization of the Bardeen's
formalism to inelastic tunneling and the quasiclassical of Brink, Nemes, and Vautherin as …