Problem 6

We want to calculate the probability of a transition

2
Pa→b (t) = |cb (t)| . (1)

To first order in perturbation theory we get

1 t i(Eb −Ea )t0 /~

Z
cb (t) = e hψb | Ĥ 0 |ψa i dt0 (2)
i~ 0

The matrix element is given by

  
0 V0 cos (ωt) 1
hψb | Ĥ 0 |ψa i = (0, 1) = V0 cos (ωt) . (3)
V0 cos (ωt) 0 0

Defining ω0 = (Eb − Ea ) /~, we then get

V0 t iω0 t0
Z
cb (t) = e cos (ωt0 ) dt0
i~ 0
V0 t iω0 t0 1  iωt
Z 
0
= e e + e−iωt dt0
i~ 0 2
Z t
V0 0 0

= ei(ω0 +ω)t + ei(ω0 −ω)t dt0
2i~ 0
V0 ei(ω0 +ω)t − 1 ei(ω0 −ω)t − 1
 
= + .
2i~ ω0 + ω ω0 − ω

Assuming that |ω0 − ω|  ω0 + ω the second term is much smaller than the first and we get

V0 ei(ω0 −ω)t − 1
cb (t) =
2i~ ω0 − ω
V0 i(ω0 −ω)t/2 ei(ω0 −ω)t/2 − e−i(ω0 −ω)t/2
= e
2i~ ω0 − ω
V0 i(ω0 −ω)t/2 2i sin [(ω0 − ω) t/2]
= e .
2i~ ω0 − ω
We then get
V02 sin2 [(ω0 − ω) t/2]
Pa→b (t) = 2 . (4)
~2 (ω0 − ω)