ATOMIC PHYSICS PROBLEMS M.T. 2005 Stacey Some questions will require further reading or looking up of facts, but many answers can be found in the lecture notes, They should be written out nevertheless - important derivations and proofs need to be worked through. The questions have been chosen to cover the ground as economically a possible, so there is little repetition. For revision or further work see the atomic physics questions in the old-style IITA Finals papers (2003 and earlier) In practice, one unfortunately cannot always schedule tutorials so that students only attempt questions after the material has been covered in the lecture, This shouldn’t cause too many problems here as the notes for the entire course are available from the outset. Also, some students may profit from doing some or all of the revision questions 1 - 8 below in first week rather than start new material; familiarity with atomic hydrogen and helium is a prerequisite to the understanding of the structure of many-electron atoms, Review of hydrogen and helium ies which appear in the theory of hydrogen have wider application in atomic physics: the Bohr radius a), the Rydberg constant R, the fine structure constant a, and the Bohr magneton is. Give a defining expression for each, and write a sentence or i ignificance 2. (a A muon has mass 206 times the electronic mass, and charge equal to that of an electron, The particle may be captured by an atom and the radiation which is emitted as the muon cascades through the energy levels can be measured. Assuming the muon- nucleus system can be treated as hydrogen-like, find the energy in MeV of the photon emitted as the muon goes from a state with principal quantum number 2 to the ground state in an atom of lead. Neglect the reduced mass correction. (b)_ The experimental value is around 5 MeV. This is likely to be significantly different from your theoretical value, What effect(s) might be responsible for the discrepancy? [Hint ~ find the order of magnitude of the size of the region occupied by the muon in its ground state.} 3. [A non-mathematical question, which invites you to think about properties of the hydrogenic wave-functions.] Neglecting relativistic and other small effects, the energies ofthe s, p,d.... states in hydrogen for a given value of the principal quantum number n are the same, They have the same potential energy, and the same kinetic energy. However, a student argues as follows: “Compared with high angular momentum states of the same n, the low angular momentum states have a higher probability of being near the nucleus, so their potential energy must be more negative. Their low angular momentum means they have lower kinetic energy also, So why don’t the low angular momentum states lie deeper in energy?” Explain to the student what is wrong with his argument.Which of the following levels do not exist in hydrogen, and why? 3f*Pyo, 3p "Psa, 38 *Syo, 3d Dz, 2p Dy For this question, you need to have to hand a derivation of the expression for the shifts in the positions of the energy levels of hydrogen-like atoms when spin-orbit interaction is taken into account. The result can be written AEQULS = Gy Bl 8 Da 2 We are concerned with the physics behind this expression and its derivation. (a)_ In simple “vector-mode!” terms, what is the direction of the B-field experienced by the electron, relative to its orbital angular momentum? What is the direction of the intrinsic magnetic moment of the electron relative to its spin angular momentum? (b) In the light of (a), and given that the interaction is of the form -.B, should the energy be higher or lower for j= /-+Y4 as compared with j=/- 4"? Check that your conclusion is correct by inspecting the expression given above (c) Explain in physical terms where the Z' dependence comes from. Show that the splitting due to spin-orbit interaction between the J= 3/2 and./~= 1/2 levels, of the 2p configuration in hydrogen is 11GHz. Draw a diagram showing the positions of the split levels with reference to the unperturbed level, and label the levels with the appropriate quantum numbers, Using the known n-dependence, find the splitting also of the 3p configuration. ‘A way of studying the small shifts caused by quantum electrodynamic effects is to use high-Z atoms, with all the electrons stripped off except one. One method is to take a tunable laser operating in the visible region (say around 600nm) and excite transitions within the fine structure of the » = 2 manifold, Using your expression for the spin-orbit splitting as a function of Z, suggest a suitable element for study. (a) Explain qualitatively why the energy required to remove one electron from the ground state of the helium atom is much larger than that in hydrogen, while for other states the hydrogenic value is quite a good approximation, e.g. the 132s levels in helium have energies very similar to the 2s energy in hydrogen. (b) The 132s configuration in helium is split into two levels, Explain briefly the physical origin of the splitting, and how it comes about that these different energies should be associated with different relative orientations of the intrinsic spins of the two electrons (so that one of the levels is called a “singlet”, and the other a “triplet”)Lectures 1 and 2 9. Explain what is meant by the central field approximation, and how it leads to the concept of configurations. State the Pauli exclusion principle, and show that it follows ftom the requirement that the wave-function describing a pair of fermions should be antisymmetric with respect to exchange. Account qualitatively for the order of filling of individual electron quantum states in atoms with atomic number up to Z = 36. Explain why the ionization potential of chlorine is less than that of argon, but more than that of potassium. How would you expect the second ionization potentials of these atoms to compare with each other? [The second ionization potential is the energy required to remove a further electron from the singly ionized atom. ] 10, Explain what is meant by the term quantum defect, used in the description of alkali energy levels. Give a brief qualitative account of how you would expect the quantum defect to vary (i) from lower to higher values of the orbital quantum number / in a given alkali (ii) from lighter to heavier alkalies for a given value of /. ‘The sodium atom has atomic number Z = 11. Write down the complete configuration of the ground (3s) level. Find the quantum defect of this level, given that the first ionization potential of sodium is 5.14eV. 11. [Notes -This question follows on from (10), and is concerned with transitions between energy levels of sodium. You need to know that when an electron undergoes a transition, the value of m can change by any amount, but / has to change by +1. These are two of the selection rules, dealt with in section V1 of the notes and in lecture 5. You will find the sodium energy level diagram in section IV.3 of the notes useful. As we are concerned here only with gross structure, we neglect spin-orbit interaction; this effect splits most of the energy levels of sodium into closely-spaced doublets, but we treat each doublet as a single level here.] Sodium has a single series of absorption lines. Make use of the data in qu. 10 to find the wavelength of the series limit. ‘The longest wavelength absorption line (3s - 3p) is at 4, = 589nm, Find the quantum defect of the 3p level. Hence estimate the wavelength 2, of the second line in the series (3s - 4p) Sodium atoms are illuminated with light of wavelength around A, so that they are excited to the 4p level. Make a rough copy of enough of the energy level diagram to indicate the routes by which the atoms may return to the ground level. You should find that the fluorescence spectrum contains 6 spectral lines, two of which are the transitions at 2, and 2,. Two of the others have wavelengths of 1.14um and 2.214m, Again using the properties of the quantum defect, identify these latter two transitions on your energy level diagram. Use the information given to improve your estimate of 2.