  A state of an electron in a quantum wire or a thin film becomes metastable,
when a static electric field is applied perpendicular to the wire direction or
the film surface. The state decays via tunneling through the created potential
barrier. An additionally applied magnetic field, perpendicular to the electric
field, can increase the tunneling decay rate for many orders of magnitude. This
happens, when the state in the wire or the film has a velocity perpendicular to
the magnetic field. According to the cyclotron effect, the velocity rotates
under the barrier and becomes more aligned with the direction of tunneling.
This mechanism can be called cyclotron enhancement of tunneling.
