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arXiv · 1108.1224

Matching Conditions in Effective-Mass Theory

Walter A. Harrison
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Abstract

It has been shown that the traditional matching of wavefunctions between regions of different effective mass (matching ψ and (1/m*)\partialψ/\partialx) is not correct, but that one should match (1/\surdm*)ψ and (1/\surdm*)\partialψ/\partialx. It has not been clear how serious is the error in using the traditional formula. We apply the two sets of conditions to a simple, but rather general, example and find that the traditional matching is not even qualitatively correct.

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Walter A. Harrison. 2011-08-04. Matching Conditions in Effective-Mass Theory. https://arxiv.org/abs/1108.1224

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