Electron optics Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Electron optics studies how electric fields and magnetic fields guide electrons and form images. The Lorentz force supplies a trajectory description, while the de Broglie wavelength supplies the wave scale needed for diffraction. Both descriptions matter: steering a narrow beam and resolving two nearby specimen features are different achievements.
For a magnetic electron lens,Here is the elementary charge, the electron velocity, and the magnetic field. The second equality follows because a cross product is perpendicular to each factor: a static magnetic field bends the trajectory without increasing the kinetic energy. Acceleration instead requires work by an electric field. This distinction lets an electron microscope adjust imaging with magnetic fields while an accelerating voltage sets the electron momentum.
Two isolated conducting drops of radius and equal charge merge at fixed total charge and volume. The new radius is , so its capacitance grows by only while total charge doubles. Relative to the sum of the initially separated self energies, the final electric field energy grows by . Decreased surface energy and/or applied mechanical work can supply that increase. Sufficiently large like charges need not coalesce spontaneously; energy conservation is not a guarantee of merging. A maintained external voltage would define a different problem.
Equilibrating voltage probe 2026-10-20
An ideal voltage probe is a reservoir that equilibrates incident carriers but draws zero net average current. Its chemical potential is fixed by that zero-current condition, and can differ from a nearby geometrical point's inferred diffusive potential in a ballistic device. Reading the probe therefore requires the transmission network, not just a local Ohm law.
Free parallel RLC voltage decay 2026-10-20
With no external current, Kirchhoff's current law is , and . Differentiating gives the title equation. For , its real solutions are with . The original current balance fixes the compatible initial inductor current. A single complex exponential represents a physical voltage through its real part; general complex solutions require both conjugate characteristic roots.
From Heisenberg arrays to Born-Jordan commutation Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
In 1925, Werner Heisenberg proposed replacing classical orbital quantities with arrays of transition amplitudes and frequencies. His paper's opening demanded relations between quantities observable in principle; section 1 built products by summing over an intermediate state and noted their dependence on order. The formulas above express that construction in modern linear operator notation.[ref]
On the quantum reinterpretation of kinematical and mechanical relationships by Werner Heisenberg. Heisenberg, 1925; introduction and section 1, equations (5), (8), (15), (20), (24)–(25); Doria translation
Pumping and a heated bath prepared Mercury vapor around a hot platinum wire, mesh and collector in the original Franck-Hertz experiment. A galvanometer read collector electric current while accelerating voltage varied at fixed retarding voltage. Retarding scans distinguished outgoing electron energies.[ref]
Über Zusammenstöße zwischen Elektronen und den Molekülen des Quecksilberdampfes und die Ionisierungsspannung desselben by James Franck and Gustav Ludwig Hertz. 1914, pp. 459–461, Figs. 1–2
The losses constrain excitation of chemical atoms; they do not determine every optical coupling. The Franck-Hertz experiment explains the original mistaken ionization interpretation.Such excitation and spectral line evidence motivated a mechanics of discrete energy levels and transitions. Replacing one representation by another was a theoretical construction; the Franck-Hertz experiment does not measure a matrix product or establish a unique representation of an observable.
Later in 1925, Max Born and Pascual Jordan developed the array calculus systematically. Their section 3 states , equivalently the modern canonical commutation relationThis relates position and momentum through an intrinsically noncommuting product.[ref]
Zur Quantenmechanik by Max Born and Pascual Jordan. Born and Jordan, Zur Quantenmechanik, 1925; section 3, equation (38), translation p. 14
For the quantum harmonic oscillator, the canonical commutation relation and creation and annihilation operators give , recovering both the spacing and zero-point energy algebraically. One must retain infinitely many number states for the exact relation: the finite cutoff below reveals the obstruction explicitly.
Harmonic maximum principle on a finite graph 2026-10-06
A real function on a finite connected graph satisfying everywhere is constant. At a maximum graph vertex, the identity forces every graph neighbour to have the same maximum. Connectedness propagates it to every graph vertex. This proves uniqueness of voltage up to an additive constant, and identifies sums of oppositely directed occupation voltages.
Impedance matching 2026-10-18
For a source with internal electrical impedance , conjugate matching maximizes delivered mean power when the source is fixed. For a purely resistive source and equal load electrical resistance , the load sees half the open-circuit voltage. A Johnson-Nyquist noise source with open-circuit mean-square voltage therefore delivers to the matched load, rather than .
For series resistance , inductance and capacitance , with output measured across the inductor, the transfer function is . At current resonance its modulus is . Large and oppositely phased inductor and capacitor voltages nearly cancel in the loop sum. This is voltage magnification in a passive circuit, not power gain. The maximum of need not occur exactly at the current-resonance frequency.
Kelvin probe force microscopy 2026-10-20
An electrostatic null method that adjusts probe–sample bias to cancel an alternating force or force-gradient component. The compensation voltage estimates a spatially weighted contact potential difference, with the sign set by the electrode-bias convention. Calibration and surface-state effects matter for work-function interpretation.
Killed-walk occupation voltage Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-20
For simple random walk on a finite connected loopless unweighted graph, start at and stop on first hitting . Ifthen and for the graph Laplacian . The incoming-visit balance equation is for ; at the Laplacian value is because all its coordinates sum to zero. Thus is the voltage for unit current from to , and . In particular, the expected number of directed transitions before is .
Kirchhoff cycle law Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-20
The Kirchhoff cycle law says the directed sum of voltage drops around every graph cycle is zero. For unit edge resistance this is the sum of signed currents around the graph cycle. With unit edge resistance, the current is a voltage gradient: define the voltage difference by summing drops along a graph path. The difference of the sums along two graph paths is a sum around closed walks; decomposing these into graph cycles makes it zero. Together with the Kirchhoff node law, the resulting graph Laplacian equation determines current uniquely on a finite connected network.
For ideal oppositely charged parallel plates, the normal electric field is . A boost along that normal leaves each transverse plate area unchanged. Invariance of total charge therefore preserves surface charge density and the normal electric field. The plate separation contracts, but the large-plate field does not depend on that separation. Including longitudinal contraction in a voltage argument while holding voltage fixed would impose an unsupported extra assumption.
Maximum power point 2026-10-20
Multiwire proportional chamber experiment Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
The original apparatus used stainless-steel wires between meshes away, flowing argon with organic vapor, negative mesh voltage and individual electronic amplifiers. A X-ray source calibrated pulse height while voltage was varied.[ref]
A coincidence circuit defined a narrow proton or pion beam. Scanning it across wires tested localization; the response edge matched the beam width, limiting the inference. Distant counts were attributed to accidental coincidences. Separate electron scans measured pulse delay versus position, comparing gas mixtures and pulse-height-dependent electronics.[ref]
Thresholds rejected small pulses, reducing detection efficiency. Wire-independence tests did not establish unlimited separation of overlapping tracks.[ref]
Noise gain of an operational amplifier 2026-10-20
The closed-loop gain from an equivalent differential input-voltage disturbance to the output is the noise gain. For an ideal-input inverting amplifier, and , although the voltage gain is . A dominant-pole amplifier has approximate closed-loop bandwidth when loop gain is large at low frequency and the circuit is stable.
Nonlocal negative resistance and passivity 2026-10-20
For a balanced nonnegative transmission matrix and , electrical power obeyswith diagonal reflection included consistently or removed from both sides. A negative four-terminal voltage-to-current ratio is compatible with this positive total power because the measured voltage pair is not the current source's pair.
Open-circuit piezoelectric response 2026-10-20
For electrically isolated electrodes with unchanged free charge, the increment of normal electric displacement field is approximately zero. A constitutive relation such as then gives an induced field that balances stress-induced displacement. Finite leakage and input capacitance modify the voltage response.
Operational amplifier Created 2026-10-18 Updated 2026-10-20
An operational amplifier is a differential electronic amplifier whose unloaded voltage is modeled in its linear regime by . Its large open-loop gain, large input impedance and small output impedance make negative feedback useful for setting a reproducible transfer function with external components. Supply voltages bound the available output swing; the linear model does not apply after saturation.
Parallel RLC circuit 2026-10-20
Past exam of the materials science course of the University of Cambridge 2018 Paper 1 2 a Solution 2026-10-20
The voltage is a mechanically mediated effect: nickel magnetostriction strains the bonded central layer, and the direct piezoelectric effect converts stress into electrical displacement. An estimate of requires a strain-transfer and electrical-boundary assumption.
Let run along the applied field and through the layers. Assume saturated, approximately volume-preserving isotropic nickel magnetostriction, perfect bonding, mechanically dominant nickel faces and a high-impedance voltage measurement. Relative to the random-domain state,Treat the thin central layer as in plane stress, with these imposed in-plane strains, negligible converse-effect backreaction and isotropic elastic constants. ThensoFor a transversely polarized layer,The open-circuit increment has , and . HenceThe observed voltage magnitude does not specify the sign without electrode polarity and poling direction. A one-dimensional approximation retaining only axial stress instead gives . That is a different mechanical model. Nickel stiffness and thickness, interface compliance, central-layer tensor coefficients and electrical loading are not specified, so the experiment does not determine a unique exact intrinsic coefficient without these assumptions.