Chapter 2

Particle Properties of Waves

The Emergence of Quantum Physics

So far, Classical Physics had revolutionised the study of the natural world Newtons Laws By the beginning of the 20th century, the law of physics had been widely developed, end of physics? Problems remained from classical mechanics that relativity didnt explain laws of classical physics fail to explain the behavior of matter on the atomic scale examples:
blackbody radiation
The electromagnetic radiation emitted by a heated object

photoelectric effect
Emission of electrons by an illuminated metal

Electromagnetic Waves

Maxwell was able to show that the speed, c of EM waves in free space is given by 1

c=

o o

= 2.998 108 m / s

o = electric permittivity; o = magnetic permeability. Later Maxwell

concluded that light consists pf EM waves

 Although all EM waves have the same fundamental nature, but their features of interaction with matter depend upon their frequencies In 1888, Hertz showed experimentally that EM waves exist and they have both electric and magnetic components

Some basic properties of EM waves

They obey the Principle of Superposition
When two or more waves of the same nature travel past a point at the same time, the instantaneous amplitude there is the sum of the instantaneous amplitudes of the individual waves

They can be diffracted Two or more waves can interact to give interference phenomenon

Odd no. of half wavelength (/2, 3/2, 5/2)

Whle no. of wavelength (, 2, 3)

Blackbody Radiation
At room temperature, the wavelengths of the thermal radiation are mainly in the infrared region As the surface temperature increases, the wavelength changes
It will glow red and eventually white (like a piece of metal which is being heated up)

The basic problem was in understanding the observed distribution in the radiation emitted by a black body
Classical physics didnt adequately describe the observed distribution

 A black body is an ideal system that absorbs all radiation incident on it (regardless of frequency), i.e. if the object is perfectly black (so it doesn't reflect any light), The electromagnetic radiation emitted by a black body is called blackbody radiation

Blackbody Approximation
small hole leading to the inside of a hollow object The hole acts as a perfect absorber The nature of the radiation leaving the cavity through the hole depends only on the temperature of the cavity, not its surface color (or the material of the object)

Blackbody Experiment Results

The total power of the emitted radiation increases with temperature
Stefans law (PHY3103): P = AeT4

The peak of the wavelength distribution shifts to shorter wavelengths as the temperature increases
Wiens displacement law maxT = 2.898 x 10-3 m.K

Stefans Law
P = AeT4
P is the power is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant
= 5.670 x 10-8 W / m2 . K4

Stefans law can be written in terms of intensity

I = P/A = T4
For a blackbody, where e = 1

Wiens Displacement Law

maxT = 2.898 x 10-3 m.K max is the wavelength at which the curve peaks T is the absolute temperature The wavelength is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature the peak is displaced to shorter wavelengths as the temperature increases

Ultraviolet catastrophe

 The intensity increases with increasing temperature The amount of radiation emitted increases with increasing temperature
The area under the curve

The peak wavelength decreases with increasing temperature Spectrum of radiation changes with temperature

Rayleigh-Jeans Law
An early classical attempt to explain blackbody radiation was the Rayleigh-Jeans law Within the cavity of an ideal blackbody, the walls inside are perfect reflectors to a series of standing EM waves The condition for standing waves in such a cavity is that path length from wall to wall, whatever the direction is, must be a whole number of half-wavelengths, so that a node occurs at each reflecting surface The number of independent standing waves G(v)dv in the frequency interval between v and dv per unit volume (density) in the cavity turned out to be:

 The higher the frequency, v, the shorter the wavelength, and the greater the number of possible standing waves According to the theorem of equipartition of energy, the average energy per degree of freedom at temperature T is kT, k is Boltzmanns constant (k = 1.381 10-23 J/K) for one-dimensional harmonic oscillator, there are two degrees of freedom The classical average energy per standing wave is: 2 (1/2)kT The total energy u(v)dv per unit volume in cavity in the frequency interval v to v + dv is therefore:

When v is , so does u(v) dv !

 At short wavelengths, there was a major disagreement between the Rayleigh-Jeans law and experiment This mismatch became known as the ultraviolet catastrophe
You would have infinite energy as the wavelength approaches zero

Plancks Theory of Blackbody Radiation

In 1900 Planck developed a theory of blackbody radiation that leads to an equation for the intensity of the radiation This equation is in complete agreement with experimental observations He assumed the cavity radiation came from atomic oscillations in the cavity walls Planck made two assumptions about the nature of the oscillators in the cavity walls

Plancks Assumption
The energy of an oscillator can have only certain discrete values En
En = nh
n is a positive integer called the quantum number h is Plancks constant is the frequency of oscillation

This says the energy is quantized Each discrete energy value corresponds to a different quantum state

 The oscillators emit or absorb energy when making a transition from one quantum state to another
The entire energy difference between the initial and final states in the transition is emitted or absorbed as a single quantum of radiation An oscillator emits or absorbs energy only when it changes quantum states

Energy-Level Diagram
An energy-level diagram shows the quantized energy levels and allowed transitions Energy is on the vertical axis Horizontal lines represent the allowed energy levels The double-headed arrows indicate allowed transitions

More About Plancks Model

The average energy of a wave is the average energy difference between levels of the oscillator, weighted according to the probability of the wave being emitted This weighting is described by the Boltzmann distribution law and gives the probability of a state being occupied as being proportional to where E is the energy of the state

E kBT

Plancks Model, Graphs

Plancks Wavelength Distribution Function

Planck generated a theoretical expression for the wavelength distribution

h = 6.626 x 10-34 J.s h is a fundamental constant of nature

 At long wavelengths, Plancks equation reduces to the Rayleigh-Jeans expression At short wavelengths, it predicts an exponential decrease in intensity with decreasing wavelength
This is in agreement with experimental results

Rayleigh-Jeans Formula!

Photoelectric Effect
The photoelectric effect occurs when light incident on certain metallic surfaces causes electrons to be emitted from those surfaces the emitted electrons are called photoelectrons

Electronvolts
Electronvolt (eV): 1 eV is the energy gained by an electron accelerated through a potential difference of 1 volt or

1 ev = (1.602 10

19

)(1.000V ) = 1.602 10

19

Sometimes, megaelectronvolt (MeV, 106) and gigaelectronvolt (GeV, 109) are used for higher value quantities

Some results from observation

There is no time interval between the arrival of light at a metal surface and the emission of photoelectrons (Electrons are emitted almost instantaneously, even at very low light intensities) A bright light (more intense) yields more photoelectrons than a dim one of the same frequency, but the electron energies remain the same

 the higher the frequency of the light, the greater the energies of the photoelectrons Blue light results in faster electron than red light At frequencies below a certain frequency vo, which is a characteristic of each metal, no electrons are emitted Above vo, the photoelectrons range in energy from 0 to a maximum value that increases linearly with increasing frequency

Quantum theory of light

Photon quanta of energy for light Light of frequency v has the energy of hv (h Plancks constant) The experimental results can be explained by Einsteins hypothesis:
EM wave energy is concentrated in photon and not spread out, there should be no delay in the emission of photoelectron Photons with the frequency v have the same energy, changing the light intensity will only lead to the different number of photoelectron, but not their energies The higher the frequency v, the higher energy of the photoelectron

Work function
A minimum energy for an electron to escape from a particular metal surface = hv The greater the work function, the more energy is needed for an electron to leave its surface, meaning that a higher frequency is needed for photoelectric emission Photoelectric effect: hv = KEmax + hv = photon energy KEmax = maximum photoelectron energy (proportional to stopping potential ) = work function

hv = KEmax + hvo KEmax = hv - hvo

Photon energy in eV:

6.626 1034 J s E = 19 1.602 10 J / eV v = (4.136 1015 )veV s

or we have v = c /
E= 4.136 1015 eV s(2.998 108 m / s )

1.240 106 eV m

X-ray (bremsstrahlung)
One of the EM waves Wavelength from 0.01 to 10 nm Generated when fast moving electrons impinge on matter It travels in a straight line unaffected by electric or magnetic field Causing phosphorescent substances to glow The faster the original moving electrons, the more penetrating the resulting x-ray The greater number of electrons, the greater intensity of the x-ray beam

Generation of x-ray beam

Observations from the production of x-ray

Enhancement of x-ray production at certain wavelengths, i.e. the peak intensity occurs at specific wavelengths for each target material (rearrangement of the electron structures of the target atoms after having been disturbed by the bombarding electrons or electron transition to inner shells, for example , , )

 X-rays produced at a given accelerating potential V vary in wavelength, but none has wavelength shorter than a certain value min Increasing V decreases min At a particular V, min is the same for Tungsten and Molybdenum targets

 Duane-Hunt formula:

1.24 10 = V

Vm

most of the electrons that strike the target undergo numerous glancing collisions before being totally stopped Only a few electrons lose most or all of their energies in single collision with target atoms this is the energy that becomes x-rays So, x-ray production is an inverse photoelectric effect the KE of electrons is transformed into photon energy A shorter wavelength means high frequency (energy) photon

 The work functions are only a few eVs, but the accelerating potentials in x-ray production are typically tens or hundreds of thousands of volts The short wavelength limit can be expressed as the entire KE = eV of a bombarding electron is given up to a single photon of energy hvmax

Ve = hvmax

hc = min

min

hc 1.240 106 = = Vm Ve V

X-ray diffraction
The lattice structure (or Bragg planes) itself represents slits for waves to be diffracted

For diffraction to occur:

Incidence angle = reflection angle 2dsin = n (Bragg equation) constructive interference

X-ray diffraction in crystal

Compton effect
further confirmation of the phonon model Can a collision between a photon and an electron occur like if they were both billiard balls? According to the quantum theory of light, photons behave like particle

Loss in photon energy = gain in electron energy hv hv = KE

E = pc, p = E/c = hv/c

In the original photon direction:

Initial momentum = final momentum

hv hv , +0 = cos + p cos Perpendicular to the original photon direction: c c

Multiply the equation by c, square and rearrange them:

hv' 0= sin p sin c

Compton wavelength

mc v v' h c c

v v' = c c (1 cos )

mc 1 1 1 ' = ' (1 cos ) h

h c = mc

h ' (1 cos ) = mc

= c (1 cos )
'

Some conclusions from Compton scattering experiment A change in the wavelength of photon is expected after being scattered through an angle by a particle of rest mass m The change is independent of the wavelength of the incident photon The change can be great or small depending on the scattering conditions