IPSA: Interactive Problem-Solving Access -3

PHY 103 Practice Problem Set –4 IITK /ynm April 08, 2021

1. A metal sphere of radius R carries a total charge Q. What is the force of repulsion between
‘northern’ and ‘southern’ hemisphere?

2. A metallic sphere for radius R is surrounded a thin spherical shell (non-conducting) of radius
3R having a surface charge density 𝜎 = 𝜎0 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜃. Find the magnitude of electric field at the
3
point 𝑟 = 𝑅, 𝜃 = 𝑐𝑜𝑠 −1 (5).

3. A conductor has the shape of an infinite conducting plane except for a hemispherical bulge of
radius a. A charge q is placed directly above the bulge at a distance p form the plane. Calculate
the force on the charge.

4. An electron is released 1 µm above a grounded metal plate. How long will it take to hit the
plate?

5. Case Study 4.1: Visualizing a biochemist’s iron core dendrimer:

Dendrimers are a class of synthetically produced highly branched, spherical nanostructures
that can be used as carrier molecules for imaging agents specially in biological applications.
Consider a dendrimer with its core being iron which can exist in neutral or +1 charge state.
The dendrimer has a diameter of 4 nm.
Highly fluorescent rhodamine dye molecules, which are incorporated into the dendrimer, can
be used to sense the charge state. This works because the fluorescence emission spectrum is
sensitive to the local electric field and hence to the charge state of the redox core.

Figure 1: A typical structure of a dendrimer molecule with a metal particle at the core.

While visualizing fluorescence under a microscope the dendrimer is kept on a grounded

metallic plate. Find the force on the dendrimer and whether that force will have an effect in
keeping the particle stationary on the plate.

6. Case Study 4.2 Barrier Lowering at a Metal surface due to Field:

We know that an electron is confined to the metal since it faces a step like barrier inside a
metal in the form of work-function potential 𝜙𝑚 so that the minimum kinetic energy
1
required for an electron to escape from the metal surface is 2 𝑚0 𝑣12 ≥ 𝑞𝜙𝑚 , where m0 is the
IPSA: Interactive Problem-Solving Access -3

free electron mass and v1 is the electron velocity normal to the metal surface. Now, when an
external electric field is applied to the surface, the barrier faced by the electron gets lowered
( it is called Schottky effect). In this case study the objective is to estimate the amount
lowering of the barrier that occurs due to the applied field E.

i) When an electric filed is applied to the metal surface, electrons that escape from the
metal surface will experience two external forces : the force due to its image charge
induced in the metal, and the force due to the applied electric field. Write down the
total potential of a n escaping electron in terms of distance from the surface say x.
ii) Find the distance at which the maximum potential energy occurs, and the maximum
potential energy at that point.
iii) Estimate the field dependence of the amount of the barrier energy that gets
lowered by the application of the filed E.

qφm

Figure 2 : Energy Barrier lowering for an escaping electron in presence of an applied electric field
is schematically shown. The task here is estimate the amount by which it gets lowered in
presence of an electric field E.

[Note: Case studies are important for this course even from examination point of view. They are
simple problems but have to be understood in terms of the context in which the problem is posed.]

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