Paper 1, Section II, C

Quantum Mechanics | Part IB, 2021

Consider a quantum mechanical particle of mass mm in a one-dimensional stepped potential well U(x)U(x) given by:

U(x)={ for x<0 and x>a0 for 0xa/2U0 for a/2<xaU(x)= \begin{cases}\infty & \text { for } x<0 \text { and } x>a \\ 0 & \text { for } 0 \leqslant x \leqslant a / 2 \\ U_{0} & \text { for } a / 2<x \leqslant a\end{cases}

where a>0a>0 and U00U_{0} \geqslant 0 are constants.

(i) Show that all energy levels EE of the particle are non-negative. Show that any level EE with 0<E<U00<E<U_{0} satisfies

1ktanka2=1ltanhla2\frac{1}{k} \tan \frac{k a}{2}=-\frac{1}{l} \tanh \frac{l a}{2}

where

k=2mE2>0 and l=2m(U0E)2>0k=\sqrt{\frac{2 m E}{\hbar^{2}}}>0 \quad \text { and } \quad l=\sqrt{\frac{2 m\left(U_{0}-E\right)}{\hbar^{2}}}>0

(ii) Suppose that initially U0=0U_{0}=0 and the particle is in the ground state of the potential well. U0U_{0} is then changed to a value U0>0U_{0}>0 (while the particle's wavefunction stays the same) and the energy of the particle is measured. For 0<E<U00<E<U_{0}, give an expression in terms of EE for prob (E)(E), the probability that the energy measurement will find the particle having energy EE. The expression may be left in terms of integrals that you need not evaluate.

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