Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten
DS 18: Spins in Molecular Systems
DS 18.7: Talk
Thursday, March 12, 2026, 16:45–17:00, REC/C213
Modelling spin particles in an infinite helical box — Alex Mureşan1,2, Fabian Prasse1, and •Sibylle Gemming1 — 1Institute of Physics, TU Chemnitz, Germany — 2Faculty of Physics, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Calculating the electronic states of a quantum mechanical particle in a potential well with infinitely high walls is probably the most readily accessible, still analytically solvable textbook example of quantisation via spatial confinement. As such, it is an ideal starting point for including additional terms to the Hamiltonian in order to adapt the model to a specific experimental setting, e.g. by introducing multiple particles or external fields. Here we present an extension that assumes an externally given spatial modulation of the potential well with helical characteristics as boundary condition. We derive analytical solutions for the motion of classical, Newtonian particles on a helical path, for charged Schrödinger-type quantum particles in a one-dimensional helical confinement, and quantum-mechanical spin 1/2-particles in a helical spin-orbit-split environment, which is encountered in investigations of the chirality-induced spin selectivity effect. We show that the model extension steps successively refine the eigenspectra of the simplest case, and that the spin-orbit interaction term leads to an extra splitting within the helical confinement.
Keywords: particle in box; helical boundary conditions; spin-orbit