Quantum Tunneling and Wave Packets

Watch quantum "particles" tunnel through barriers. Explore the properties of the wave functions that describe these particles.

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Visualize wave functions for constant, step, and barrier potentials.
Visualize both plane wave and wave packet solutions to the Schrodinger equation and recognize how they relate to each other.
Interpret and distinguish the real part, imaginary part, and absolute value of the wave function, as well as the probability density.
Recognize how the probability of reflection and transmission of a wave are related to the energy of the wave, the energy of the step or barrier, and the width of the barrier.
Recognize that that a plane wave has a single value of energy and a wave packet has a range of a range of energies.
Explain how incoming and reflected waves interfere.

The teacher's guide contains tips for teachers created by the PhET team (PDF).

There are 2 contributions listed.

Title	Author	Level	Type	Updated
potential barrier lab	T. Paglione	UG-Adv	Lab	11/09
Reflection and Transmission Interactive Lecture	S. McKagan	UG-Adv	CQs	7/08

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