• Embed Doc
  • Copy Link
  • Readcast
  • Collections
  • CommentGo Back
 
Quantized Angular Momentum
In the process of solving theSchrodinger equationfor thehydrogen atom, it is found that the orbitalangular momentumis quantized according to the relationship:It is a characteristic of angular momenta in quantum mechanics that the magnitude of the angular momentum in terms of theorbital quantum number is of the formand that the z-component of the angular momentum in terms of the magnetic quantumnumber takes the formThis general form applies toorbital angular momentum,spin angular momentum, and the total angular momentumfor an atomic system. The relationship between the magnitude of the angular momentum and its projection along any direction is space isoften visualized in terms of avector model.
Total Angular Momentum
When the orbital angular momentum andspin angular momentum are coupled, the total angular momentum is of the general form for quantized angular momentum where the total angular momentum quantum number isThis gives a z-component of angular momentum
 
This kind of coupling gives an even number of angular momentum levels, which isconsistent with the multiplets seen inanomalous Zeeman effectssuch as that of sodium. As long as external interactions are not extremely strong, the total angular momentumof an electron can be considered to be conserved and j is said to be a "good quantumnumber". This quantum number is used to characterize the splitting of atomic energylevels, such as thespin-orbit splittingwhich leads to thesodium doublet. Vector Model for angular momentum Theorbital angular momentumfor an atomic electron can be visualized in terms of avector model where the angular momentum vector is seen as precessing about adirection in space. While the angular momentum vector has the magnitude shown, onlya maximum of l units can be measured along a given direction, where l is theorbitalquantum number .Since there is amagnetic momentassociated with the orbital angular momentum, the precession can be compared to the precession of a classical magnetic moment caused bythe torque exerted by a magnetic field. This precession is calledLarmor precession and has a characteristic frequency called the Larmor frequencyWhile called a "vector", it is a special kind of vector because it's projection along adirection in space is quantized to values one unit of angular momentum apart. Thediagram shows that the possible values for the "magnetic quantum number " m
l
for l=2can take the values= -2, -1, 0, 1, 2or, in general= -l, -l+1,..., l-1, l .
 
Vector Model for Total Angular MomentumWhenorbital angular momentumL and electron spin angular momentumS are combined to produce thetotal angular momentumof an atomic electron, thecombination process can be visualized in terms of a vector model. Both the orbital andspin angular momentua are seen as precessing about the direction of the total angular momentum J. This diagram can be seen as describing a single electron, or multipleelectrons for which the spin and orbital angular momenta have been combined to produce composite angular momenta S and L respectively. In so doing, one has madeassumptions about the coupling of the angular momenta which are described by the L-Scouplingscheme which is appropriate for light atoms with relatively small externalmagnetic fields.The combination is a special kind of vector addition as is illustrated for the singleelectron case l=1 and s=1/2. As in the case of the orbital angular momentum alone, the projection of the total angular momentum along a direction in space is quantized tovalues differeing by one unit of angular momentum.
Angular Momentum in a Magnetic Field
of 00

Leave a Comment

You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...
You must be to leave a comment.
Submit
Characters: ...