Scattering at a cylindrical potential barrier in two dimensions

A wave packet is scattered at a potential barrier. The potential inside a circle with radius 2.5 around the origin has a positive value (about half the average kinetic energy of the particle). Outside this region the potential is zero (free motion). This results in a repulsive force along the circle which causes a partial reflection when the wave packet enters the region with the potential. A second reflection occurs when the wave packet leaves the region again.

"Visual Quantum Mechanics - Book One" investigates the scattering of two-dimensional wave packets in many situations including potential steps, barriers, walls, obstacles, and periodic structures. Where possible, this is done with exact solutions of the Schrödinger equation. A special MathLink-application "QuantumKernel" is used with Mathematica to generate the films when no exact solution of the Schrödinger equation is available.