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Journal of Physics A Mathematical and General

The barrier transmission problem treated by the amplitude-phase method and expressed in terms of an invariant of the Ermakov–Lewis type

Karl-Erik Thylwe

Published Dec 9, 2004• 18 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Transmission and reflection of a quantal particle by a single-hump potential barrier are analysed by means of an amplitude-phase decomposition of the wavefunction on both sides of the barrier. The amplitude-phase analysis of the wavefunction provides a particular invariant of the Ermakov–Lewis type, which originates in the matching process. The transmission and reflection coefficients turn out to be simple functions of this invariant. Numerical calculations of the invariant for an Eckart–Epstein potential barrier provide very accurate results.

DOI
10.1088/0305-4470/38/1/017

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Transmission and reflection of a quantal particle by a single-hump potential barrier are analysed by means of an amplitude-phase decomposition of the wavefunction on both sides of the barrier. The amplitude-phase analysis of the wavefunction provides a particular invariant of the Ermakov–Lewis type, which originates in the matching process. The transmission and reflection coefficients turn out to be simple functions of this invariant. Numerical calculations of the invariant for an Eckart–Epstein potential barrier provide very accurate results.
AMPLITUDE METHOD.In this work, a simple derivation of the variable amplitude method using the variation of parameters to solve a differential equation is presented.The variable amplitude method was originally devised by Tikochinsky in 1977, using the quantum theory of scattering.The method is applied to two model potentials, the rectangular potential barrier and the Eckart potential, both with analytical solutions for the reflection coefficient.Numerical results will be compared with the exact values for several energies.The problem of calculating the reflection coefficient, usually involving extensive algebra as described in several textbooks, is reduced to solving a first order differential equation with initial condition.The method is very simple to apply, representing an attractive tool for teaching introductory quantum mechanics.A simple computer code is available from which reflection coefficients for the Eckart potential can be calculated.
We show that application of the immersing and transfer-matrix methods to one-dimensional problems of particles scattering leads to the system of two linear equations for the functions F and Φ expressed by means of the transmission and reflection amplitudes. The expressions of these functions are derived. The offered method is illustrated by the finding of transmission and reflection coefficients for the potential barrier with a constant height. The developed method can be applied in solving the quasi-one-dimensional and two-dimensional problems of scattering.
In this paper, we calculate the transmission and reflection amplitudes of wave functions for different potentials such as the delta function, the rectangular barrier, the Eckart potential, and the Hulthen potential. We describe the relationship between these amplitudes and compute the reflection resonances between each potential. We describe the transmission and reflection probabilities using the WKB formula and compare the results with ones obtained from matching the boundary conditions. Furthermore, we use a two by two transfer matrix to calculate a rigorous bound on the transmission and reflection probabilities.
Abstract The transmission of a quantal particle through a barrier obtained by inverting a Morse potential is studied by means of the ‘symmetric’ phase-integral approximations introduced by N. Fröman and further developed by N. Fröman and P. O. Fröman. The calculations are performed up to the fifth-order approximation. Approximate expressions for important quantities such as transmission and reflexion coefficients, phases of the wave function and also for quantities related to the phenomenon of resonances, which may occur when the wave function is given as a standing wave, are compared to the corresponding exact quantities, and this comparison shows the great accuracy of these phase-integral approximations.
The reflection and transmission of a wave on a two-dimensional barrier is studied quantum mechanically and semiclassically. The simple model consists of two degrees of freedom. One of them contains a barrier (of the Eckart type); the second allows only a bound motion in discrete quantum states. These two degrees of freedom are coupled. The transition probabilities for transitions between the different quantum states can, in the model considered here, be evaluated analytically, both quantum mechanically and semiclassically. Several of the so called uniform semiclassical approximations and also the initial value integral representation for the semiclassical transition amplitudes are considered and compared to the exact quantum mechanical results. Some new insight on the semiclassical treatment of the tunneling process is gained, specially concerning the proper choice of the integration path for the initial value integral representation of the transition amplitudes.
This work is a contribution to the theory of the quantum tunneling effect. In the literature at least two barriers are studied, for which the third-order contribution to the phase - integral asymptotic approximation of the transmission coefficient do not contribute. These are the parabolic barrier and the inverse Morse barrier. In the present work we will show that with a proper choice of the so called base function there is at least one more barrier in this category namely the Eckart-Epstein potential. The fact that the third - order contribution vanishes is a good indication that we have found an optimal choice of the base function, and the treatment to find an optimal base function may be possible to generalize to other classes of potential barriers. For particles of a low energy compared to the energy near the top of the barrier we obtain a vary low transmission coefficient, which means that the probability for tunneling to occur is very low. There exist some cases, for example that with a double barrier which is transparent, even for certain relatively low energies but no evidence for this kind of transparency for a single barrier has been found. The present work does not give any such evidence. At the same time there are still speculations on cold fusion like effects, which would demand a higher probability for tunneling through for a single barrier.