In quantum mechanics the delta potential is a potential well mathematically described by the Dirac delta function - a generalized function. Qualitatively, it corresponds to a potential which is zero everywhere, except at a single point, where it takes an infinite value. This can be used to simulate situations where a particle is free to move in two regions of space with a barrier between the two regions. For example, an electron can move almost freely in a conducting material, but if two conducting surfaces are put close together, the interface between them acts as a barrier for the electron that can be approximated by a delta potential.

The delta potential well is a limiting case of the finite potential well, which is obtained if one maintains the product of the width of the well and the potential constant while decreasing the well's width and increasing the potential.

This article, for simplicity, only considers a one-dimensional potential well, but analysis could be expanded to more dimensions.

Single delta potential

The time-independent Schrödinger equation for the wave function of a particle in one dimension in a potential where is the reduced Planck constant, and is the energy of the particle.

where is the Dirac delta function.

It is called a delta potential well if is negative, and a delta potential barrier if is positive. The delta has been defined to occur at the origin for simplicity; a shift in the delta function's argument does not change any of the following results.

Solving the Schrödinger equation

Source:

The potential splits the space in two parts ( and this is a linear differential equation with constant coefficients, whose solutions are linear combinations of and , where the wave number

where, in the case of positive energies (real ), represents a wave traveling to the right, and one traveling to the left.

A second relation can be found by studying the derivative of the wavefunction. Normally, we could also impose differentiability at the origin, but this is not possible because of the delta potential. However, if we integrate the Schrödinger equation around

Substituting the definition of

Bound state (E < 0)

In any one-dimensional attractive potential there will be a bound state. To find its energy, note that for , is imaginary, and the wave functions which were oscillating for positive energies in the calculation above are now exponentially increasing or decreasing functions of x (see above). Requiring that the wave functions do not diverge at infinity eliminates half of the terms:

from which it follows that must be negative, that is, the bound state only exists for the well, and not for the barrier. The Fourier transform of this wave function is a Lorentzian function.

Scattering (E > 0)

For positive energies, the particle is free to move in either half-space: or . It may be scattered at the delta-function potential.

The quantum case can be studied in the following situation: a particle incident on the barrier from the left side . It may be reflected or transmitted . To find the amplitudes for reflection and transmission for incidence from the left, we put in the above equations (incoming particle), (reflection), (no incoming particle from the right) and (transmission), and solve for and even though we do not have any equations in

Due to the mirror symmetry for the particle to be reflected. This does not depend on the sign of , that is, a barrier has the same probability of reflecting the particle as a well. This is a significant difference from classical mechanics, where the reflection probability would be 1 for the barrier (the particle simply bounces back), and 0 for the well (the particle passes through the well undisturbed).

Remarks and application

The calculation presented above may at first seem unrealistic and hardly useful. However, it has proved to be a suitable model for a variety of real-life systems.

One such example regards the interfaces between two conducting materials. In the bulk of the materials, the motion of the electrons is quasi-free and can be described by the kinetic term in the above Hamiltonian with an effective mass . Often, the surfaces of such materials are covered with oxide layers or are not ideal for other reasons. This thin, non-conducting layer may then be modeled by a local delta-function potential as above. Electrons may then tunnel from one material to the other giving rise to a current.

The operation of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) relies on this tunneling effect. In that case, the barrier is due to the air between the tip of the STM and the underlying object. The strength of the barrier is related to the separation being stronger the further apart the two are. For a more general model of this situation, see Finite potential barrier (QM). The delta function potential barrier is the limiting case of the model considered there for very high and narrow barriers.

.

Alternatively, it is possible to generalize the delta function to exist on the surface of some domain D (see Laplacian of the indicator).

The delta function model is actually a one-dimensional version of the Hydrogen atom according to the dimensional scaling method developed by the group of Dudley R. Herschbach The delta function model becomes particularly useful with the double-well Dirac Delta function model which represents a one-dimensional version of the Hydrogen molecule ion, as shown in the following section.

Double delta potential

is the "internuclear" distance with Dirac delta-function (negative) peaks located at (shown in brown in the diagram). Keeping in mind the relationship of this model with its three-dimensional molecular counterpart, we use atomic units is a formally adjustable parameter. From the single-well case, we can infer the "ansatz is found to be governed by the pseudo-quadratic. For the case of equal charges (symmetric homonuclear case), The "+" case corresponds to a wave function symmetric about the midpoint (shown in red in the diagram), where , and is called gerade. Correspondingly, the "−" case is the wave function that is anti-symmetric about the midpoint, where , and is called ungerade (shown in green in the diagram). They represent an approximation of the two lowest discrete energy states of the three-dimensional and are useful in its analysis. Analytical solutions for the energy eigenvalues for the case of symmetric charges are given by where W is the standard Lambert W function. In the case of unequal charges, and for that matter the three-dimensional molecular problem, the solutions are given by a generalization of the Lambert W function (see ).

One of the most interesting cases is when qR≤. Thus, one has a non-trivial bound state solution with . For these specific parameters, there are many interesting properties that occur, one of which is the unusual effect that the transmission coefficient is unity at zero energy.

See also

• Free particle

• Particle in a box

• Finite potential well

• Particle in a ring

• Particle in a spherically symmetric potential

• Quantum harmonic oscillator

• Hydrogen atom or hydrogen-like atom

• Ring wave guide

• Particle in a one-dimensional lattice (periodic potential)

• Hydrogen molecular ion

• Holstein–Herring method

• Laplacian of the indicator

• List of quantum-mechanical systems with analytical solutions

References

Bibliography

• For the 3-dimensional case look for the "delta shell potential"; further see K. Gottfried (1966), Quantum Mechanics Volume I: Fundamentals, ch.III, sec.15.

External links