1

The Probability Distribution of an Electron in

Washboard Potential
Ho Hsiao, Jia-Ying Chen, Yi-Sheng Huang

Department of Physics, National Chung-Hsing University,

40227 Taichung, Taiwan(R.O.C).

Abstract—The probability distribution of an electron in Futher, if we take the temperature effect into ac-
the washboard potential can be regraded as an electron count, [3] gives
moving in a periodic potential V (θ) = J cos θ driven by
a bias Iθ. The transition rate between two states obey ∆Eif s 2 −∆Eif /kb T
the Fermi’s Golden rule, so that we use the molecular
Γsq = γq e (3)
R
dynamics(MD) to verify the final probability distribu-
tion. We found that the distribution of same-energy- where R is related to the system evolving speed.
state transition(SEST) is a Boltzmann distribution and The Γif means the probability of the transition from
only related to the temperature. As the I increase, the |qi , si i transit to |qf , sf i under the Temperature T .
thermalization speed is faster. For exciting transition, as
J and T increase, the transition probability will decrease
and increase respectively. II. C OMPUTATION
Keywords—Washboard potential, Molecular Dynamics, For the first step, as we did in the previous work
Fermi’s Golden rule [2], we use the finite difference method to create the
hamiltonian operator and diagonalize it. Then we
have a set of wavefunction to calculate the transfer
I. I NTRODUCTION
rate. Next, in order to simplify the computation, we
In this paper, we consider how a wave-packet consider the local transition, namely, the SEST from
of an electron distribute in a washboard potential qi to qi+1 and qi−1 and the exciting transition from
which potential is V (θ) = J cos θ +Iθ. Hamiltonian s = 1(ground state) to s = 2 (first excited state).
of this model is Moreover, the exciting transition takes place when
∂2 only at q = 0.5 and q = −0.5 where the energy gap
H = H0 + H1 = 2 + J cos θ + Iθ (1) between two states is the smallest place in the bend.
∂θ
the first two terms belong to H0 , which represent an Then we have the master equation of the SEST,
electron in the periodic potential V (θ) = J cos θ, dPis
and the last term H1 tilt that periodic potential = Γsi,i+1 Pi+1
s
+ Γsi,i−1 Pi−1
s
− Γsi,i+1 Pis − Γsi,i−1 Pis
dt
providing the electron a driven force. Note that the (4)
equation(1) is already scaled by h̄2 /2M . To solve and the exciting transition,
this hamiltonian equation directly is quite difficult. dPq1
As a consequent, we shall first consider only H0 = Γ2,1 2 1,2 1
q Pq − Γq Pq (5)
part. We could get a set of wavefunction ψq,s (θ) = dt
|q, si = eiqθ uq,s (θ) forming a Hilbert space. The q is
dPq2
the Bloch wavenumber and s represent the energy = Γ1,2 1 2,1 2
q Pq − Γq Pq (6)
state. dt
Once we have the Hilbert space, we can apply To slove these master equations, we use the molec-
the Fermi’s Golden rule to discuss the transition rate ular dynamics combining 4th-oder Runge-Kutta in-
between two states, which gives tegral to compute the final probability distribution.
2π We give a gaussian distribution in the ground state
γqs = hqf , sf | H1 |qi , si i (2) as the initial condition.
h̄
 2

III. R ESULT AND D ISCUSSION

Before we start to discuss the distribution of two
energy states, we shall check some basic proper-
ties of this model. Intuitively, the final distribution
should follow Boltzmann distribution, which gives
P (q) = Ae−E(q)/kb T (7)
This gives us a hint that the final distribution just
relates to the temperature and E(q) determined by
J, i.e, the bias H1 dose not affect the final distri-
bution. We set up two initial conditions, different
width w, to compare distributions with Boltzmann
distribution under same temperature and J. One is
the hot-start, a fat gaussian distribution, and the
Fig. 2: The distribution and the time-evolving illustration(subfigure)
other is the cold-start, a sharp gaussian distribution. of I = 0.7 and I = 0.3 when J = 0.5 at kb T = 0.01. Comparing
Here we only compute the SEST inside ground two subfigures, we can see that it takes longer time for I = 0.3 to
state. The Fig.1 shows that both cold-start and hot- reach the Boltzmann distribution.
start become Boltzmann distribution as time goes
by.

Fig. 3: The total probability in the first excited state according to

Fig. 1: The distribution and the time-evolving illustrations(subfigures)
of the cold-start(w = 0.01) and hot-start(w = 0.5) when J = 0.5
at kb T = 0.01. In the subfigure, red color represent relative high
probability and blue on the contrary. Because the cold-start is too
sharpe, the illustration looks blue everywhere.
On the other hand, as we expect, the magnitude
of I dose not contribute to the final distribution of
SEST. However, form the time-evolving illustrations
in Fig. 2 we find that the magnitude of I changes
the evolving speed. The larger magnitude of I the
shorter time is needed to reach the thermalized
distribution.
Next, we set the initial probability in the first
excited state Pq2 to be zero and add the exciting
transition into computation, so that we could discuss
how J, I and temperature affect the transition
MD-time when I = 0.3 and kb T = 0.5
between two energy state. We define the state to
state transition probability PST S to be the total
probability distributed in first excited state. From
the Fig. 3 we can see that PST S increase when J
decrease. This result is quit sensible since the gap
between two states becomes greater with J.
On the other hand, as we see in Fig.4, the
magnitude of I again change nothing about the
probability distribution but only evolving speed.
This seems weird at the first sight, but it’s still
reasonable. In the previous discussion, we know that
distribution of SEST is a Boltzmann distribution.
Though subFig. 4a tells that the exciting transition
rate is proportional the magnitude of I, as time goes
 3

proportion to the magnitude of J. When the gap

is bigger, the first excited state is at rather higher
energy level which is more unstable. Consequently,
it will prefer to fall down to ground state.

Fig. 4: The total probability in the first excited state according to
MD-time when J = 0.1 and kb T = 0.5. The subfigure(a) shows the
relation between J and transition rate under different I at kb T = 0.3.
Jump and Fall represent transition from s = 1 to s = 2 and from
s = 2 to s = 1 respectively. The subfigure(b) is the distributions
under different I when J = 0.1, kb T = 0.5
IV. S UMMARY
The distribution of the both same-energy-state
transition and state-to-state transition are related to
the temperature and J. Former one is a Boltzmann
distribution. As J increase, the transition between
two states will decrease. The bias I change noth-
ing about the distribution but the evolving speed,
because of the transition rate. As T increase, the
transition between two state will also increase.
R EFERENCES
[1] Stephen Gasiorowicz, Quantum Physics, 3rd ed. Wiley, 2003.
[2] Ho Hsiao and Chih-Yun Cheng, Rotating Dipole In A Potential
Field
[3] Schön, G. and A. Zaikin (1990), Quantum coherent effects, phase
transitions, and the dissipative dynamics of ultra small tunnel
junctions, Physics Reports 198: 237-412.

(a) (b)

Fig. 5: (a)The total probability in the first excited state according to

MD-time when J = 0.1 and I = 0.5 (b) is the relation between J
and transition rate under different kb T when I = 0.5. Jump and Fall
represent transition from s = 1 to s = 2 and from s = 2 to s = 1
respectively.

by the distribution(see subFig. 4b) will be the same.

Temperature plays a big role when it comes to state-
to-state transition.
Besides, Fig. 5(a) shows that PST S increase with
the temperature. There are two reason. One, since
the Boltzmann distribution is rather fat at higher
temperature, so that the probability at two sides
of the bend in ground state where state-to-state
transition happens is higher. It provides more chance
to transit to first excited state. Or from another
aspect, the higher temperature provide more energy
to excite to S = 2. Second, Fig. 5(b) give us
that at higher temperature, the transition rate is
greater. When J increase, jump rate decrease but
fall rate increase. That’s because the energy gap is