Compton Effect
Compton Effect
Compton Effect
Manjunath.R
#16/1, 8th Main Road, Shivanagar, Rajajinagar, Bangalore560010, Karnataka, India
*Corresponding Author Email: manjunath5496@gmail.com
*Website: http://www.myw3schools.com/
Abstract
Compton scattering, discovered by American physicist Arthur Holly Compton, is the scattering of a
photon by an electron. It results in a decrease in energy of an X-ray or gamma ray photon, called
the Compton Effect. In this article, we provide a simple, concise discussion about one of three
principle forms of photon interaction "Compton scattering" which demonstrates the particle nature
of electromagnetic radiation.
Arthur Holly Compton was an American physicist who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1927 for his 1923
discovery of the Compton Effect, which demonstrated the particle nature of electromagnetic radiation.
In empty space, the photon − the basic unit of all light − moves at c (the speed of light) and its
energy and momentum are related by E = pc, where p is the momentum of the photon. This
derives from the following relativistic relation, with m0 = 0:
E2 = p2c2 + m02c4
In some situations, photon behaves like a wave, while in others, it behaves like a particle. The
photons can be thought of as both waves and particles. In 1924 a French physicist Louis de
Broglie developed a formula to relate this dual wave and particle behavior:
hc
E=hυ, c = λυ, E= = mc2
λ
1
where E and m are the energy and mass of the photon, υ and λ are the frequency and wavelength
of the photon, h is the Planck constant, c is the speed of light. From this we obtain the definition
of the photon wavelength through the Planck constant and the momentum of the photon:
h
λ=
mc
This equation is used to describe the wave properties of matter, specifically, the wave nature of
the electron:
h
λe =
m𝑒 v
m0
where λe is wavelength, h is Planck's constant, me = is the relativistic mass of the
2
√1−v2
c
h
pe =
λ𝑒
Sir Isaac Newton first presented his three laws of motion in the "Principia Mathematica
Philosophiae Naturalis" in 1686. His second law defines a force exerted by a photon on the
electron to be equal to the rate of change in momentum of the electron:
dp𝑒
F=
dt
2
p2𝑒 dλ𝑒
F= ×−
h dt
E2 = pe2c2 + E02
E2 − E02 = pe2c2
m2𝑒 v2
EK =
(m0 +m𝑒 )
me = m0
m0 v2
EK =
2
hF
EK = dλ𝑒
(m0 + m𝑒 ) × −
dt
me = m0
F = m 0a
3
ha
EK = dλ𝑒
2×−
dt
3 k T= ha
EK = B dλ𝑒
2 2×−
dt
3kB T dλ𝑒
a=
h
× − dt
ha
EK = 𝑒V= dλ𝑒
2×−
dt
dλ𝑒
a = KJ V ×− dt
An effect published in the Physical Review that explained the x-ray shift by attributing particle-
like momentum to light quanta – discovered by American physicist Arthur Compton in early
1920s at Washington University in St. Louis, which amply confirmed the particle behavior of
photons at a time when the corpuscular nature of light suggested by photoelectric effect was still
being debated. This effect is suggested that when an x-ray quantum of energy hυ and a
h
momentum interacts with an electron in an atom, which is treated as being at rest with
λ
momentum = 0 and energy equal to its rest energy, m0c2. The symbols h, υ, and λ are the
standard symbols used for Planck's constant, the photon's frequency, its wavelength, and m0 is
the rest mass of the electron. In the interaction, the x- ray photon is scattered in the direction at
h
an angle θ with respect to the photon's incoming path with momentum and energy hυs. The
λs
electron is scattered in the direction at an angle φ with respect to the photon's incoming path with
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momentum mev and energy mec2 (where me is the total mass of the electron after the
interaction). The phenomenon of Compton scattering may be analyzed as an elastic collision of a
photon with a free electron using relativistic mechanics. Since the energy of the photons (661. 6
keV) is much greater than the binding energy of electrons (the most tightly bound electrons have
a binding energy less than 1 keV), the electrons which scatter the photons may be considered
free electrons. Because energy and momentum must be conserved in an elastic collision, we can
obtain the formula for the wavelength of the scattered photon, λs as a function of scattering
h
angle θ: λs = {(1−cosθ) + λ} where λ is the wavelength of the incident photon, c is
m0 c
h
the speed of light in vacuum and is λC the Compton wavelength of the electron (which
m0 c
characterizes the length scale at which the wave property of an electron starts to show up. In an
interaction that is characterized by a length scale larger than the Compton wavelength, electron
behaves classically (i.e., no observation of wave nature). For interactions that occur at a length
scale comparable than the Compton wavelength, the wave nature of the electron begins to take
over from classical physics).
Compton postulated that photons carry momentum; thus from the conservation of momentum,
the momenta of the particles are related by
p = ps + pe
pe = p − ps
Making use of the scalar product yields the square of its magnitude,
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p2 +p2s −2pps cosθ dλ𝑒
F= ×−
h dt
The conservation of energy merely equates the sum of energies before and after scattering:
(hυ − hυs) = EK
F
(υ − υs) = dλ𝑒
(m0 +m𝑒 ) × −
dt
F
∆υ = dλ𝑒
(m0 +m𝑒 ) × −
dt
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Compton on the cover of Time magazine on January 13, 1936, holding his cosmic ray detector
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Compton at the University of Chicago in 1933 with graduate student Luis Alvarez next to his cosmic ray telescope
To make the moral achievement implicit in science a source of strength to civilization, the scientist will
have to have the cooperation also of the philosopher and the religious teacher.
−Arthur Compton
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Millikan and Compton at the Rome Conference on Nuclear Physics, 1931
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Physicists Albert Einstein (left) and Arthur Compton appear together at an event held at the University of Chicago
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h
∆λ = λs – λ = (1− cosθ)
m0 c
d(∆λ) d(cosθ)
= λC × −
dθ dθ
d(∆λ)
= λC sinθ
dθ
In Compton's original experiments the wavelength shift given above was the directly-measurable
observable. In modern experiments it is conventional to measure the energies, not the
hc
wavelengths, of the scattered photons. For a given incident photon energy E = , the fractional
λ
(E−Es )
decrease in photon energy → z , is given by
E
Es (1−cosθ) λC
z= = (1− cosθ)
m0 c2 λs
Since:
d(∆λ)
= λC sinθ
dθ
Therefore:
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m0
The mass me of a electron moving with a velocity v is given by me = where: m0 = rest
2
√1−v2
c
mass of electron and c = speed of light.
m0 c
√c 2 − v 2 = m𝑒
√c2 −v2 m0 c
=
v m𝑒 v
c2 λ𝑒
√ −1=
v2 λC
λC
λe =
2
√ c2 −1
v
References:
Compton, Arthur H. (May 1923). "A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-Rays by
Light Elements". Physical Review. 21 (5): 483–502.
Classical and Relativistic Mechanics by David Agmon.
Light − The Physics of the Photon by Ole Keller.
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