Matter Waves

Objectives:

• After completing this module, you will be able to find the deBroglie wavelength of free particles.  You will have explored the dispersion of a wave packet and be able to use the uncertainty principle to do simple calculations.

Web Material:

June 8

• Read: Matter Waves
• In-class activity:  Electron diffraction
• Read: Wave Equations
• In-class activity: Exploring derivatives using a spreadsheet
• What have we learned so far?
• Remember!

Textbook:

• Chapters 6.1 - 6.5, 6.8 - 6.10

The Schroedinger equation

Objectives:

• After completing this module you will be able to work with complex variables, verify solutions to the time-independent Schroedinger equation, and know how to interpret the solutions and obtain information from the wave functions.

Web Material:

June 11

• Read: The Schroedinger equation
  Read: Interpretation of the wave function
  In-class activity: Normalization
  • Textbook: Chapters 6.4, 7.1
• Remember!

June 12

• Read: Making predictions (Summary)
• Read: One-dimensional problems  (Summary)
  In-class activity: Time-dependent solutions
  • Textbook: Chapters 7.3, 7.4 - 7.7, 7.11

June 13

• Read: Problems and applications
  In-class activity:  Exploring bound states in potential wells
  • Textbook: Chapters 7.8 - 7.10
• Remember!

June 14

• Read: Three-dimensional problems
  • Textbook: Chapters 8.1 - 8.4
• Read: Spherically symmetric potentials
  • Textbook: Chapters 8.5 - 8.7
• Read: Angular Momentum
• Read: Tunneling
• Remember!

Laboratory:

• Complex Numbers   (June 11)
• Quantum Mechanics in 1D   (June 13)