Potential well

A region where potential energy is lower than its surroundings, allowing a particle or system to remain confined or become trapped.

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Bound state: A state in which a particle or system remains localized because its energy is insufficient for escape. A particle in a well is bound when its total energy lies below the escape threshold.
Potential energy: Energy associated with an object's position, configuration, or interaction with other objects. A potential well is a low region in a potential-energy landscape.
Infinite potential well: An idealized quantum region bounded by infinitely high potential barriers. This solvable model isolates how confinement quantizes a particle's energy.
Harmonic oscillator: A system whose restoring force is proportional to displacement from equilibrium. Its parabolic potential well has evenly spaced quantum energy levels, unlike generic wells.
Quantum tunneling: A quantum process in which a particle crosses a classically forbidden energy barrier. Finite wells can leak particles through barriers even when classical motion forbids escape.
Kinetic energy: Energy an object has because of its motion. The balance between kinetic and potential energy determines whether motion remains confined.
Finite potential well: A quantum well with barriers of finite height, permitting bound states and tunneling leakage. Real confining regions have finite barriers, unlike the ideal infinite well.
Square well potential: A piecewise-constant potential with abrupt boundaries around a lower-energy region. Its sharp-edged shape contrasts with smooth wells and makes exact solutions tractable.
Schrödinger equation: The equation governing how a quantum-mechanical wavefunction evolves and how stationary states are determined. Its solutions give the allowed energies and wavefunctions inside a quantum well.
Energy level: A discrete or specified value of energy available to a physical system. Quantum wells support particular allowed energies rather than a continuous range.