Animation 1 | Animation 2

Please wait for the animation to completely load.

Shown is an infinite square well with L = 2 (from x = −1 to x = 1) to which you can add five potential energy steps:

by using one of the five sliders to change the size of this addition. To see the other bound states, simply click-drag in the energy level diagram on the left to select a level. The selected level will turn red.  For the animation we have set: ħ = 2m = 1. Given the following values for the potential energies,

what happens to the energy eigenfunction for small n and for large n?  What happens to the energy spectrum? Once you have completed this exercise, explore Animation 2 which allows you to do something similar in a finite well.