Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-physics-course-of-the-year-1-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2019/section-b/8/a/solution

Use a stationary wavefunction solving the Time-independent Schrödinger equation. For energy above the positive step potential, the positive wavenumbers are
Incidence only from the left permits a right-moving incident plane wave and a left-moving reflected plane wave for , but only a right-moving transmitted plane wave for :
The omitted right-incident component would describe a different scattering experiment. Wavefunction matching at a finite potential step requires continuity of both and for a finite jump and the same mass on either side:
Eliminate from the second condition:
The first ratio is a transmission amplitude; a transmitted probability current also depends on its different propagation velocity.

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