Paper 2, Section II, B

Quantum Mechanics
Part IB, 2013

(i) Consider a particle of mass mm confined to a one-dimensional potential well of depth U>0U>0 and potential

V(x)={U,x<l0,x>lV(x)=\left\{\begin{array}{cl} -U, & |x|<l \\ 0, & |x|>l \end{array}\right.

If the particle has energy EE where UE<0-U \leqslant E<0, show that for even states

αtanαl=β\alpha \tan \alpha l=\beta

where α=[2m2(U+E)]1/2\alpha=\left[\frac{2 m}{\hbar^{2}}(U+E)\right]^{1 / 2} and β=[2m2E]1/2\beta=\left[-\frac{2 m}{\hbar^{2}} E\right]^{1 / 2}.

(ii) A particle of mass mm that is incident from the left scatters off a one-dimensional potential given by

V(x)=kδ(x)V(x)=k \delta(x)

where δ(x)\delta(x) is the Dirac delta. If the particle has energy E>0E>0 and k>0k>0, obtain the reflection and transmission coefficients RR and TT, respectively. Confirm that R+T=1R+T=1.

For the case k<0k<0 and E<0E<0 show that the energy of the only even parity bound state of the system is given by

E=mk222E=-\frac{m k^{2}}{2 \hbar^{2}}

Use part (i) to verify this result by taking the limit U,l0U \rightarrow \infty, l \rightarrow 0 with UlU l fixed.