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Tutorial 3
Tutorial 3
Tutorial 3
Spring 2012
Tutorial 2:
WKB approximation:
Exercise 1:
Lets examine the passage of an electron trough an insulator:
V x EF e x
e is the electron charge.
We will calculate the transmission coefficient which is the result of electron tunneling trough
the barrier.
Tutorial 3
Spring 2012
You have seen in the lecture that the transmission coefficient in the WKB approximation is:
2b
T exp p dx '
a
So we can calculate:
p 2m E V x
In our case V is a function of x:
p 2m EF e x EF 2m e x
We will put this expression in the integral:
e
2 2 2m
2 e
32
'
T exp 2m e x dx exp
e x
3e
0
4 2m
4 2m 3 2
3 2
exp
e e 0 exp
3 e
3 e
And get:
4 2m 3 2
T exp
3 e
Tutorial 3
Spring 2012
Exercise 2:
We will now calculate the transmission coefficient of a particle with mass m and energy E
trough a potential barrier:
1
V x m 2 x 2
2
p x
2m E m 2 x 2
2
2 Ex02
x
1
x0
E0 x 2
x0
E0
Lets see what happens in great distance, meaning x 2 Ex02 E0 . We will expand the term
inside the square root in power series, and keep the first term only:
2 Ex02
x
x
E
1
2
2
2
x0
E0 x
x0 E0 x
For x 0 the wave function in the WKB approximation for x far enough is:
1
x0 p
i
exp
1
x0 p
i
exp
x
E
'
dx
0 x02 E0 x
x
1
x0 p
x0
p x ' dx '
i x '
iE x dx '
'
exp 2 x dx exp
x0 0
E0 0 x
1
x0 p
2 Ex02
x
x0 2 1
x0
E0 x 2
2
2
4
2
Ex
x
0
1
E0 x 2
x0
Tutorial 3
Spring 2012
And integrate:
iE x
x 2 2 Ex02 4
ix 2
1
exp
2 exp ln
2
E0 x
x0
2 x0
E0 x0
x
x0
iE E0 1 2
ix 2 x
2 Ex02 4
exp
1
2
2
E
x
0
2 x0 x0
iE E0 1 2
ix 2
exp 2
2 x0
2 Ex02
1 can be neglected because this term
E0 x 2
appears not in the exponent. This will give us the asymptotic form for the incoming and
outgoing waves:
E 1
E 1
i
i
2
E0 2
E0 2
ix 2
x
ix
x
exp
exp
2 x
2
x0
2 x0 x0
2 x0
x
E 1
x i E0 2
ix 2
t
exp 2
x
2
x
x0
0
x x0 to be complex.
x
ei
x0
t ei E0
i
1
2
i 2e2i
exp
Tutorial 3
Spring 2012
According to the figure when and the angle the coefficients must be equal.
Meaning that the incoming wave and outgoing wave must be the same for :
E
r E0
i
1
2
i 2
exp
2
E 1
E 1
i
i 2 e 2i
i 2
i
r t ei E0 2 exp
E0 2 exp
2
E
t ei E0
i
1
2
2 2 i
E 1
i e
i 2
r t exp
i i
2
2
E
2
0
E i
t exp
E0 2
i
E0
E0
2
te
e
ite
r
We know from conservation of the current flux that t r 1 so we can get the
2
t ite
2
Where T t
E 2
E0
T Te
E
E0
so we get:
1
1 e
2 E E0
Notice that is the difference between energy levels if there was no minus sign in the
potential barrier. Also that the more energy the particle has the closer the transmission
coefficient is to 1.