Physics 709 Exam 3 (open book) KSU 98/12/14

1. A gas of hydrogen atoms has been prepared in the 2p state n = 2 l = 1 m = 0 .

j i

a) Calculate the electric dipole matrix element (in C m) associated with the transition to the
1s ground state:
~ = e 1 0 0 ~r 2 1 0
P h j j i (1)
b) Determine the spontaneous transition rate A (in s;1 ) for this transition.

2. Suppose the atoms of question 1 are bathed in incoherent unpolarized incident light from all
directions with energy density per unit frequency given by
!;!0
(!) = 0 e;( 1000!0 )
2
(2)
where !0 is the 2p ! 1s transition frequency and 0 is a constant.
a) What value of 0 (in J s/m3 ) will produce a stimulated transition rate R2p!1s equal to
12:5 108 s;1 ?


b) What is the frequency-averaged rms electric eld intensity Erms of the incident light in a),
dened by equating energy densities,
1  E 2 = Z d! (!): (3)
2 0 rms
Give Erms in Volts/m.

3. A quantum particle of momentum h k scatters from an attractive square well potential,

V (r) = V0 for
; 0<r<a
V (r ) = 0 for r>a (4)
a) Calculate the dierential scattering cross section (d=d) using the rst Born approximation.
Give the result in terms of the magnitude of the momentum transfer
= 2k sin(=2).
b) Carefully sketch (d=d) vs.
a. Hint: can it go to zero at any points? What does it do
at low
a, high
a?]
c) By expanding for
a 1, determine the leading energy dependence of (d=d) at low


energy.
d) Find the total scattering cross section in the limit of low energy.

1
4. (optional) For a free particle the wavefunction eikz can be written
1
X
eikz = il (2l + 1) jl (kr) Pl (cos ) (5)
l=0
As r ! 1 , jl (kr) sin(kr l=2)=kr, which is a linear combination of an outgoing wave (e+ikr )
! ;

and an incoming wave (e;ikr ).

After scattering, the outgoing wave suers a phase shift relative to the incoming wave, such that
we REPLACE
sin(kr l=2)
; (6)
BY h i
(e2i l ei(kr;l
=2) e;i(kr;l
=2) =2i
; (7)

a) Show that far from the scatterer we can then write the wavefunction as
1 " 1 #
ikr
 = il (2l + 1) sin(kr ; l=2) Pl (cos ) + k (2l + 1)e sin l Pl (cos ) e r (8)
1
X X i l
l=0 kr l=0
where the term in square brackets is the scattering amplitude f ().
b) For scattering from a hard sphere of radius a, the solution for  outside the sphere is
1 " #
jl (kr) j(1)l (ka) h(1)
X
 = il (2l + 1) (kr) Pl (cos ) (9)
hl (ka) l
;

l=0
By comparing (8) and (9) determine the phase shifts l .