EMA 6110 Electron Theory in Solids

Fall 2015
Exam I
Exam time:

Wednesday, October 7, 4:00pm to 5:40pm (100 minutes)

(Extension to a total time of 120 minutes is allowed if requested by student)

Location:

126 MAE

This is a closed-book exam, but you are allowed to bring in ONE single-sided, lettersized sheet of paper with handwritten information of your choice.

You are allowed to use a calculator.

100 total points plus 10 bonus points

Some physical constants that you may find useful and a part of the Period Table of
Elements are given on the next page.

Some general guidelines for completing the exam:

o Make sure you compile your answers to the questions in a formal way by using
complete sentences instead of scattered words or phrases to explain your
reasoning and justifications.
o Provide sufficient middle steps in calculations and derivations.
o Define the symbols and acronyms that you use, and/or illustrate on diagrams.
o Pay attention to the units of various parameters. The unit should be provided as
part of your answer.
o For calculations, write down the equations first, perform equation derivations, and
only plug in the values of the parameters for calculation at the final step.

Honor Pledge: On my honor, I have neither given nor received unauthorized aid in
completing this exam.
NAME:
(PRINT)

(Signature)

Physical constants
Free electron mass:
Atomic mass unit:
Electron charge:
Planck constant:
Boltzmann constant:
Vacuum permittivity:
Vacuum permeability:
Avogadro constant:
Speed of light in vacuum:

me = 9.110-31 kg
amu = 1.6610-27 kg
e = 1.610-19 C
h = 6.6310-34 Js
kB = 1.3810-23 J/K
0 = 8.8510-12 F/m
0 = 410-7 H/m (or Vs/Am, or kgm/A2s2)
NA = 6.0221023 atoms/mol
c = 3108 m/s

1. Multiple choice questions. (5 points each, 20 total points)

(1) The de Broglie wavelength for an electron which has a kinetic energy of 1 eV is 1.22 nm.
So, for an electron whose kinetic energy is 100 eV, its de Broglie wavelength should be:
A.
B.
C.
D.

122 nm;
12.2 nm;
0.122 nm;
0.0122 nm.

Your answer:

(2) Which one of the following equations relating various physical terms is INCORRECT?
A. p = hk;
B. k = 2/;

C. group velocity
D. energy E =

Your answer:

(3) Assume the energy difference between the lowest and the second lowest energy levels for
a particle confined in a one-dimensional infinite potential well is 1 eV. If the width of
potential well is doubled, such energy difference will become:
A.
B.
C.
D.

2 eV.
4 eV.
0.5 eV.
0.25 eV.
Your answer:

(4) The potential energy for a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator is

where m is the mass of the particle, is the angular frequency, and x is the displacement.
Following quantum mechanics, the zero-point point energy of this harmonic oscillator is:
A. 0.
B.
/4
C.
/2.
D.
.
Your answer:

2. Electron conduction in metal (16 total points)

(1) How does the conductivity of a pure copper metal change with temperature? And why?
(8 points)

(2) What is the Hall Effect? In brief words, what information can be extracted from the Hall
measurement? (8 points)

3. Particles incident on step barrier (30 points)

We want to find the transmission and reflection coefficients for particles incident from the right
side of the potential barrier illustrated below.
(1) Write down the time-independent
Schrdinger Equation in Region II,
and solve for the wavefunction for
particle energy E > V0 containing
both the incident wave and the
reflected wave. (8 points)

(2) Write down the time-independent Schrdinger Equation in Region I, and solve for the
wavefunction containing only the transmitted wave. (8 points)

(3) Derive the transmission and reflection coefficients. (14 points)

4. Hydrogen atom (34 points)

The spatial part of the eigen wavefunctions for the electron in a hydrogen atom is

,,

, ,

(1) What is the energy of , , ? What is the total number of eigen-states having the same
energy as this state (i.e. the degeneracy)? (6 points)

2 , where Lx, Ly, and Lz

(2) Show that , , is an eigenfunction of the operator
are the x-, y-, and z-components of the angular momentum L. Also find the
corresponding eigenvalue. (10 points)

(3) We want to measure the magnitude of the total angular momentum, L, for a particular
Hydrogen atom whose wavefunction is given by
, ,
2 , ,
, ,
2 , , . What are the possible values of L from each individual measurement, and what
is the expectation value of L from a sufficiently large number of measurements? Make
sure you explain your answers and/or provide sufficient middle steps to arrive at your
answers. (12 points)

(4) Is the wavefunction given in (3) a stationary wavefunction? Why? (6 points)

Bonus question: Three-dimensional Harmonic Oscillator (10 bonus points)

Consider a three-dimensional harmonic oscillator whose potential energy can be written as:
, ,
.
(1) Write the time-independent Schrdingers Equation for this three-dimensional harmonic
oscillator. (2 points)

(2) Assuming the wavefunction can take the form of

, ,
, show that
the x, y, and z variables in the Schrdingers Equation you write in (1) can be separated,
and the three-dimensional Schrdingers Equation can be separated into three
Schrdingers Equations for one-dimensional harmonic oscillators. (5 points)

(3) Based on what you know about energy levels of a one-dimensional harmonic oscillator
and the results from (2), show that the total energy of the three-dimensional harmonic
oscillator must have the quantized form:
,
where nx, ny, and nz are non-negative integers.
(3 points)

10