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Class 12: The Compton Effect

A further demonstration of the particle nature of light was provided by Compton’s experiments in which he scattered X-rays from electrons bound in atoms.

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Zaeem Uddin Ali
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78 views2 pages

Class 12: The Compton Effect

A further demonstration of the particle nature of light was provided by Compton’s experiments in which he scattered X-rays from electrons bound in atoms.

Uploaded by

Zaeem Uddin Ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Class 12: The Compton effect

A further demonstration of the particle nature of light was provided by Compton’s experiments in which
he scattered X-rays from electrons bound in atoms. If the electrons are loosely bound to the atom, they
can be treated as free electrons at rest. According to classical physics, the wavelength of the X-rays would
not be changed by the interaction with the electrons. However, Compton did find a change in wavelength,
which can be explained by treating light as made of particles, i.e. photons.

The scattering of a photon off an electron is shown in the figure:

-
e

e-
φ
γ θ

Denote the energy of the incident photon by Eγ , and that of the scattered photon by Eγ′ . The electron is
initially at rest and its energy is its rest energy, mec2. After scattering, let the electron energy be Ee′.
Conservation of relativistic energy gives

Eγ + me c 2 = Eγ′ + Ee′ . (12.1)

Conservation of momentum gives the two equations

Eγ Eγ′
= cos θ + pe′ cos ϕ ,
c c
(12.2)
Eγ′
0= sin θ − pe′ sin ϕ .
c

Since we are interested in the change in energy of the photon, let’s eliminate the electron momentum and
energy from equations (12.1) and (12.2). We have

cpe′ cos ϕ = Eγ − Eγ′ cos θ ,


(12.3)
cpe′ sin ϕ = Eγ′ sin θ .

Squaring and adding gives

2 2 2
( cpe′ ) = ( Eγ − Eγ′ cos θ ) + ( Eγ′ sin θ ) = Eγ 2 − 2 Eγ Eγ′ cos θ + Eγ′ 2 . (12.4)

Now

1
2
Ee′2 = ( cpe′ ) + ( me c 2 ) .
2
(12.5)

Using equation (12.1), this gives


2 2
(E γ − Eγ′ + me c 2 ) = Eγ 2 − 2 Eγ Eγ′ cos θ + Eγ′ 2 + ( me c 2 ) . (12.6)

This simplifies to

me c 2 ( Eγ − Eγ′ ) = Eγ Eγ′ (1 − cos θ ) , (12.7)

which can also be written as

 1 1 
me c 2  −  = (1 − cos θ ) . (12.8)
 Eγ′ Eγ 

To get an expression involving wavelengths, we note that a photon has energy Eγ = hf = hc λ . Hence

h
λ′ − λ = (1 − cos θ ) . (12.9)
me c

The combination of physical constants h me c is called the Compton wavelength of the electron. Its
value is 0.0024 nm. The Compton wavelength lies in the X-ray part of the electromagnetic spectrum, and
hence X-rays were necessary to show the Compton effect. For visible light, the relative change in
wavelength is about 5 10-6, but for X-rays of wavelength 0.1 nm, the relative change is much larger and of
order 0.02.

Note that the greatest change in photon energy occurs when it is back scattered (i.e. θ = 180 ). Then from
conservation of momentum

cpe′ = Eγ + Eγ′ . (12.10)

If the energy of the incident photon is much larger than the electron rest energy, conservation of
relativistic energy gives

Ee′ = Eγ − Eγ′ . (12.11)

Again neglecting the electron rest energy, so that cpe′ ≈ Ee′ , we see that Ee′ ≈ Eγ . Photons with energy
much greater than the electron rest energy can transfer most of their energy to the electrons, which is way
of making very energetic electrons. Similarly in collisions between energetic electrons and low energy
photons, most of the electron’s kinetic energy can be transferred to the photon, giving highly energetic
photons. This is called the inverse Compton effect. The inverse Compton effect can be used to produce
high energy photons by backscattering laser light off beams of electrons accelerated in synchrotron
facilities. The resulting MeV to GeV range photons are used for nuclear physics experiments.

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