PHL120 Tutorial sheet 3

1. Electrons of energy 10 eV are incident on a potential step of height 13.8 eV. Find the distance in which the probability density of finding the particle decreases by a factor of 0.01 as it penetrates into the classically forbidden region. (0.23 nm) 2. Particles of energy 9 eV are sent towards a potential step 8 eV high. What percentage of particles will reflect back? (25%) 3. Estimate the penetration distance x for a very small dust particle, of radius r = 106 m and density = 104 kg/m3, moving at the very low velocity v=10-2 m/sec, if the particle impinges on a potential step of height equal to twice its kinetic energy in the region to the left of the step. (2x10-19 m) 4. Electrons of energy 1 eV are incident on a barrier of height 10 eV and width 0.5 nm. Find the transmission probability. What will be the probability if the particle is proton instead of electron? (3x107 and 10279) 5. A particle of mass m and energy V1 moves in a potential given by V(x) = V1 + V2ex for 0<x<L and zero otherwise. If the particle is moving towards the positive x-axis and encounters the barrier, estimate the probability that it will appear in the region x > L. Assume V1 << V2. 6. Electrons with energies of 1.0 eV and 2.0 eV are incident on a barrier 10.0 eV high and 0.50 nm wide. (a) Find their respective transmission probabilities. (b) How are these affected if the barrier width is doubled? ( (a)1.1x107, 2.4x107 (b) 1.3x1014, 5.1x1014) 7. The potential seen by an alpha particle of energy 4.25 MeV formed in a heavy nucleus is approximately given as V = 250 MeV fm/r for r> 8 fm and V = 50 MeV for r< 8 fm. (a) Sketch the potential as a function of r. (b) Find the maximum value of the potential. (c) Find the width of the barrier encountered by the alpha particle. (31 MeV, 50.8 fm) 8. A cubic meter of atomic hydrogen at 0oC and at atmospheric pressure contains about 2.7x1027 atoms. Find the number of these atoms in their first (1.3x10188 and 4.0x105) excited states (n = 2) at 0oC and at 10,000oC. 9. N distinguishable atoms are distributed over two energies E1 = 0 and E2 = E. Show that the total energy of the system is given by Etot= (NE)[eE/kT/(1+ eE/kT)]. 10. The particles in two states with energy difference 4.83x1017 J occur with relative probability e2. Calculate the temperature of the system.

11. Whenever the mean interparticle distance is comparable to or smaller than the de Broglie wavelength assigned to particles on the basis of their temperature, we should expect to observe wave effects, in the system of particles. Show that this criterion leads to the requirement that the degeneracy factor Nh3/V(3mkT)3/2 not be negligible compared to 1 if deviations from classical behaviour are to be detected. 12. One mole of helium is kept in a container at NTP. Can we use MB statistics for this system? 13. A gas of N identical Bosons, each of mass m, is kept in a volume V. The occupation probability is written as f(E) = 1/[e(E)/kT 1]. Show that 0 as the temperature T approaches a particular value TB. Find an expression for TB. This temperature is called condensation temperature. 14. The two electrons in a helium atom are in the 1s state. Write the spin part of the wave function. 15. Two identical Fermions with antisymmetric spin wave function are placed in a one-dimensional box of length L. Each particle has mass m. The energy of the system is 13h2/8mL2. Write the space part of the wave function. 16. The Fermi level for a system of identical fermions is EF. Find the energy at which the distribution function f(E) is (a) 0.90 (b) 0.10. (EF 2.2kT, EF +2.2kT) 17. Show that, if the average occupancy of a state of energy EF + E is f1 at any temperature, then the average occupancy of a state of energy EF E is f2 = 1 f1. 18. Find the Fermi energy in copper on the assumption that each copper atom contributes one free electron to the electron gas. Given that the density of copper is 8.94 gm/cc and its atomic mass is 63.5 amu. (7.04 eV) 19. Calculate the number of quantum states in the energy range EF kT for the (9.4x1022) free electrons in a copper wire of volume 10 cm3 kept at 300 K. 20. Consider a gas of N noninteracting identical Fermions. Find the energy at which the function n(E) has half its maximum value. The Fermi energy is 4 eV.