Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

PHN-313 Signals & Systems (Autumn 2023-24)

Assignment 2
EPH III
Assigned: 13.08.2023 Due: 23.08.2023

1. Consider and LTI system whose response to the input signal x1 (t) is the signal y1 (t)
as depicted in Fig. 1(a) and (b), respectively. Find the response of this system to
the signals plotted in Fig. 1(c) and (d).

Figure 1: Plots of signals x1 (t) (a), y1 (t) (b), x2 (t) (d), and x3 (t) (c).

2. Plot the convolution y[n] = x[n] ∗ h[n], where

 −n
1
x[n] = u[−n − 1] and
3
h[n] = u[n − 1].

3. Determine and sketch the convolution of the following signals:


 t + 1, if 0 ≤ t ≤ 1
x(t) = 2 − t, if 1 < t ≤ 2
0, if otherwise


h(t) = δ(t + 2) + 2δ(t + 1).

4. The impulse response of a system S is given by
 n
1
h[n] = u[n].
5

(a) Find the integer α such h[n] − αh[n − 1] = δ[n].

(b) Determine the impulse response of a system which is the inverse system of S.

5. Consider the series connection of three causal LTI systems shown in Fig. 2. The
impulse response h2 [n] is
h2 [n] = u[n] − u[n − 2],
h3 [n] = h2 [n], and the overall impulse response is shown in Fig. 3.

Figure 2: Series connection of three systems.

Figure 3: Overall impulse response of the system shown in Fig. 2

(a) Find the impulse response h1 [n].

(b) Find the impulse response of the overall system to the input x[n] = δ[n] −
δ[n − 1].

6. Consider an LTI system characterized by the following input-output relation:

Z t
y(t) = e−(t−τ ) x(τ − 2)dτ.
−∞

(a) Find the impulse response h(t) of the system.

(b) Find the response of the system to the input x(t) shown in the Fig. 4.
 Figure 4: Signal x(t).

7. Consider a continuous-time LTI system S and a signal x(t) = 2e−3t u(t − 1). If

x(t) −→ y(t)

and
dx(t)
−→ −3y(t) + e−2t u(t),
dt
determine the impulse response h(t) of S.

8. An important task in acoustic signal processing is to remove echoes. Let’s consider

a feedback system S0 shown in Fig. 5 which represents a very simple model for
generation of echoes. Here, S T is the T -delay operator (echoes arrive periodically
after a delay of T) and α is the gain of echoes. Assume y(t) = x(t) = 0 for t < 0.

Figure 5: A feedback system.

(a) Find the impulse response h(t) of the echo generator system S0 .
(b) Find the condition for stability of this system.
(c) Find and sketch the step response s(t), −∞ < t < ∞, when S0 is a stable
system.
(d) Propose a system S1 which when cascaded to S0 recovers the original signal
x(t).

9. Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) is one of the most local experimental probes
of electronic structure in solids. It basically comprises a metallic point-like tip
separated from a sample by vacuum barrier with a provision to apply a bias V
between tip and sample, see Fig. 6. The STM tip usually resides few angstroms
above the sample and can be moved in the three spatial directions. Applying a
positive (negative) bias on sample lowers (raises) its Fermi energy relative to the tip
and electrons preferentially tunnel from tip to sample (sample to tip). The resulting
tunneling current I can be measured. The differential tunneling conductance dI/dV
turns out to be proportional to the sample’s local density of states (LDOS) ρ(r, ω)
at the tip position r and energy ω = eV .

Figure 6: Schematic of STM [J. Hoffman, Rep. Prog. Phys. 74, 124513 (2011)]

If you recall, a superconductor is state of matter where coherent superposition of

pairs of electrons (called ”Cooper pairs”) form the ground state. When a metal
becomes superconductor below the transition temperature, an energy gap (∆) opens
symmetrically around the Fermi energy. Among many things, STM is widely used
to measure this energy gap in the density of states, furnishing indispensable clues
about the mechanism of superconductivity.
Very recently, a variant of STM called Scanned Josephson Tunneling Microscopy
(SJTM), with a superconducting STM tip, has been used to study many intriguing
superconductors such as cuprate high-temperature superconductors, NbSe2 , UTe2
and conventional superconductors like Pb, to name a few. SJTM can not only
measure the tunneling current due to electrons (and holes) coming from the ”broken”
Cooper pairs (actually, ”broken” Cooper pairs are called Bogoliubov quasiparticles
and they are superpositions of electrons and holes) but also due to coherent tunneling
of Cooper pairs, which does not cost any energy and happens without any voltage
drop. The quasiparticle tunneling current is given by the following expression.
Z ∞
I(r) = A dωρt (r, ω)ρs (r, ω + eV )[f (ω) − f (ω + eV )],
−∞

where, A is a constant, f (ω) = 1/(1 + eω/kB T ) is the Fermi function, V is the applied
bias, ρt (r, ω) is the LDOS of the superconducting STM tip, and ρs (r, ω) is the LDOS
of the superconducting sample.
(a) Show that for T → 0, f (ω) = u(−ω), where u represents the step function.
(b) Show that

I(r) = A[ρ̃t (r, −ω) ∗ ρs (r, ω) − ρ˜s (r, ω) ∗ ρt (r, −ω)],

where, ρ̃(r, ω) = f (ω)ρ(r, ω)

(c) Assume that both, the STM tip and the sample are conventional s-wave super-
conductors with local density of states given by the following expression
" #
|ω|
ρt (r, ω) = Nt (r)Re p
ω 2 − ∆2t
" #
|ω|
ρs (r, ω) = Ns (r)Re p
ω 2 − ∆2s

where, ∆s and ∆t are the superconducting gaps in the tip and the sample, re-
spectively, Ns,t (r) is the LDOS at the Fermi energy in metallic state of the tip
and the sample, and Re represents real part (note that these expressions hold
only for ω within the bandwitdh of the metallic state, beyond which LDOS is
zero). Sketch the normalized LDOS spectrum ρs,t (r, ω)/Ns,t (r) for the super-
conducting tip and the sample assuming ∆t = ∆0 /2 and ∆s = ∆0 as a function
of normalized energy −2 < ω/∆0 < 2. At what energies you find peaks (called
”coherence peaks”) in each spectrum?
(d) Assuming T → 0, sketch the normalized differential tunneling conductance

1 dI(r)
g(V ) =
ANt (r)Ns (r) dV

as a function of bias V for −2 < eV /∆0 < 2. At what energies you find peaks in
the conductance spectrum? (You can do this part analytically or numerically,
it’s your choice.)