| Title: | Energy Band Creator* |
| Meeting: | 116th AAPT National Meeting: New Orleans, LA |
| Location: | N/A |
| Date: | Monday, January 5 |
| Time: | 8:45 a.m. |
| Author: |
N. Sanjay Rebello, Kansas
State Univ. 785-532-1633, srebello@phys.ksu.edu |
| Co-Author(s): | Dean A. Zollman |
| Abstract: | The Energy Band Creator program enables the student to understand the origin of energy bands in a solid. The student begins with a single atom represented by a rectangular potential energy diagram, changes the width and depth of the potential well, and observes the allowed energy values. The student can create identical multiple wells representing a solid, change the inter-atomic separation, and add impurity atoms to the solid and observe the effect on the energy bands. No knowledge of higher level mathematics is required to use the program, which can be used by students starting at the high school level. The program was built using Macromedia Director 5.0, and runs on both Macintosh and Windows platforms. The program can also be used over the Web using the Shockwave plugin. All versions of the program are available at http://www.phys.ksu.edu/perg/vqm/programs. |