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Particle in A Box

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Particle in A Box

Uploaded by

maneeshraj422007
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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MODULE - II

QUANTUM PHYSICS

Dr. C. R. Kesavulu, Associate Professor, Dept. of Physics

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MODULE - II
QUANTUM PHYSICS
TOPICS IN QUANTUM PHYSICS

 Introduction to quantum physics

 Wave Particle Duality-de-Broglie’s hypothesis

 Davisson and Germer experiment,

 Time-independent Schrodinger equation for wave function,

 Physical significance of the wave function,

 Schrodinger equation for one dimensional problems–particle in a


box.

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PHYSICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF 
The actual physical significance was not clear.
Max Born’s interpretation of ‘’, given in 1926, is generally
accepted at present.
As ‘’ is a complex function is a real value.
|Ψ|2 at a point is proportional to the probability of finding the
particle at the point at any given instant.
The probability density at any point is represented by , the
probability P of finding the particle within any element of
volume dxdydz is given by

Since the total probability of finding the particle somewhere is


unity,
is such a function that satisfies condition

satisfying above equation is called a normalized function.


Besides this is a single valued continuous function.

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Characteristics of Wave Function
An acceptable wave function must be normalized and fulfill the
following requirements

 function must be finite


The wave function should not tend to infinity. It must remain finite for
all values of x, y, z.
 function must be single–valued
Any physical quantity can have only one value at a point. For this
reason, the function related to a physical quantity cannot have more than one
value at that point.
 function must be continuous
the wave function y and its space derivatives should be continuous
across any boundary.

Wave functions satisfying the above mathematical conditions are


called well-behaved wave functions.

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Particle in a Box +

Quantum mechanics examines the behavior of the


micro level units

We consider a 1-D potential well of width ‘L’,


Let the potential is V=0 inside the well and V=∞
outside the well.
For potential well
------------------- (1)

The time independent Schrodinger wave equation in 1-D case is given by

----------------- (2)

For the particle present inside the well V= 0 and

----------------- (3)

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Particle in a Box +

Let the general solution of (3) is given as

-------- (4)

Where A & B are constants are to be determined from the boundary conditions.

BC -1 in Eqn. (4): 0= A sin(0) + B cos (o)


Boundary Conditions 0= B
B =0
at and
BC -2 in Eqn. (4): 0= A sin (kL) + B Cos (kL)
0 = A sin (kL) + 0
at x = L.
sin (kL) = 0 [sin(0) =0]
kL = n
So (4) simplifies to ------------- (5) = k = n/L

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Particle in a Box
+

Differentiating twice we get

+ = 0 ------------- (6)
Comparing (3) & (6) we get
=
Where n is called quantum number.
So, the particle cannot possess any value of energy, it possesses
only a discrete set of energy values.
Energy of nth level is En = = ----------- (7)

In order to find value of A, we use normalization condition.


i.e., = 1 or = 1
Then we get A =

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Particle in
Particle +
inaaBox
Box

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Particle in a Box
+

The quantum behavior in the box include

Energy quantization:
It is not possible for the particle to have any arbitrary definite energy.
Instead only discrete definite energy levels are allowed.

Zero-point Energy:
The lowest possible energy level of the particle, called the zero-point
energy, is non-zero.

Spatial-nodes:
In contrast to classical mechanics the Schrodinger equation predicts
that for some energy levels there are nodes, implying positions at
which the particle can never be found.
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