Engineering Physics

(PHY1701)

Dr. B. Ajitha
Assistant Professor
Division of Physics
VIT University
Chennai, India
[email protected]
 PHY1701
Module-1: Introduction to Modern Physics Dr. Ajitha

Contents
• Planck’s concept (hypothesis) (AB 66-67)
• Compton Effect (AB 80-86),
• Particle properties of wave: Matter Waves (AB 104-114),
• Davisson Germer Experiment (AB 115-117),
• Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle (AB 119-128),
• Wave function (AB 182-184 & 190-195), &
• Schrödinger equation (time dependent & independent)
(AB 187 -190 & 195-197).

 Concepts of Modern Physics, Arthur Beiser et al., Sixth Edition,

Tata McGraw Hill (2013) (AB)
2
 PHY1701
Introduction to Modern Physics Dr. Ajitha

The Emergence
Particle Property Wave Properties
of Quantum
of Waves of Particles
Physics
Debroglie Hypothesis
Blackbody radiation
- Matter Waves,
Wave function

Davisson Germer
Planck’s concept
Experiment

Schrodinger equation
Heisenberg
Compton Effect
Uncertainty Principle

3
 PHY1701
Energy and Matter Dr. Ajitha

Size of Matter Particle Property Wave Property

Large – macroscopic Mainly Unobservable

Intermediate – electron Some Some

Small – photon Few Mainly

For matter E = mc2 For waves E = h

4
 PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

Classical vs Quantum world

At atomic &
In everyday life, subatomic scales,
quantum effects quantum effects
can be safely are dominant &
ignored must be considered

This is because Laws of nature

Planck’s constant developed without
is so small consideration of
quantum effects do
not work for atoms

5
 PHY1701
The Wave Nature of Light Dr. Ajitha

c    E  h 
The speed of light is constant

6
The wavelength  Variation PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

radio gamma-ray

visible
microwave infrared UV X-ray

2
1016 0
105
-14 3 2 1 0 -1
10 10 10 10 10 10

wavelength (nm)
Low High
Energy
 (nm) Energy

7
Glowing Objects PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

8
 PHY1701
Color temperature Dr. Ajitha

A light spectrum of
Blackbodies is often
characterized in terms
of its temperature
even if it’s not
exactly a blackbody.

9
 PHY1701
Kirchoff radiation law Dr. Ajitha

 Thermal radiation: The radiation emitted by a body as a result

of temperature.
 Blackbody: A body that its surface absorbs and emit all the
thermal radiation incident on them.
 Spectral radiance: The spectral distribution of blackbody
radiation
 The ability of the body to radiate is closely related with its
ability to emit.
 Kirchoff radiation law: Any body in thermal equilibrium with
the radiation, the emitted power is proportional to the power
absorbed.
 A body at constant temperature is in thermal equilibrium with
its surrounding and must absorb energy from them at the same
rate as its emit energy.
10
 PHY1701
Black body Dr. Ajitha

 A black body is an ideal body which

allows the whole of the incident
radiation to pass into itself
(without reflecting the energy ) and
absorbs within itself this whole
incident radiation (without passing
on the energy).
 This property is valid for radiation
corresponding to all wavelengths
and to all angles of incidence.
Therefore, the black body is an
ideal absorber of incident
radaition.
 An ideal system that absorbs all
radiation incident on it,
Independent of the material
11
11
 PHY1701
The spectral radiance of blackbody radiation shows that: Dr. Ajitha

1. The higher the temperature,

the more the emission and the
shorter the average
wavelength.
2. little power radiation at very
low wavelength.
3. The power radiation increases
rapidly as  increases from
very small value.
4. The power radiation is most
intense at certain
wavelength max or max for
particular temperature.
5.   max and RT drops slowly, but continuously as  increases, and
RT(  ) 0. RT()- the emitted energy
6. max increases linearly with increasing temperature. from a unit area per unit time
7. The total radiation for all ν (radiance RT = RT () d, increases less
rapidly than linearly with increasing temperature.
12
 PHY1701
Stefan's Law Dr. Ajitha

The radiation from a black body is observed to obey the following two
laws :

Stefan's Law: The intensity of emitted radiation for a given wavelength

is proportional to the fourth power of the temperature of the black
body.

Where  is the Stefan’s constant

13
 PHY1701
Basic Laws of Radiation Dr. Ajitha

1) All objects emit radiant energy.

2) Hotter objects emit more energy than colder objects (per unit area). The
amount of energy radiated is proportional to the temperature of the
object.

3) The hotter the object, the shorter the wavelength () of emitted energy.

This is Wien’s Law

𝟑𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝒎
max 
𝑻

14
 PHY1701
Wien's Displacement Law Dr. Ajitha

 Wien's Law tells us that objects of different temperature emit spectra

that peak at different wavelengths.
 Hotter objects emit most of their radiation at shorter wavelengths,
hence they will appear to be bluer .
 Cooler objects emit most of their radiation at longer wavelengths, hence
they will appear
to be redder.
 Furthermore, at
any wavelength,
a hotter object
radiates more (is
more luminous)
than a cooler
one.

15
peak vs Temperature PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

2.9 x 10-3 m
T  peak =
T(Kelvin)

3100K 2.9 x 10-3 m

(body temp) =9x10-6m
3100
infrared light

58000K 2.9 x 10-3 m

(Sun’s surface) 58000 =0.5x10-6m
visible light

16
 PHY1701
The Rayleigh-Jeans Law Dr. Ajitha

 It agrees with experimental measurements for long wavelengths.

 It predicts an energy output that diverges towards infinity as
wavelengths grow smaller.
 The failure has become known as the ultraviolet catastrophe.
 This formula also had a problem. The problem was the term in
the denominator.
 For large wavelengths it fitted the experimental data but it had
major problems at shorter wavelengths.
 At short wavelengths, there was a major disagreement between
the Rayleigh-Jeans law and experiment 2ckT
I ( , T ) 
4
 To explain this, Rayleigh Jeans considered the idea of cavity radiation and
built on their hypothesis based on two theories
1. Stationary waves in hollow space
2. Equipartition of energy
17
 PHY1701
Spectral energy density- Rayleigh Jeans law Dr. Ajitha

18
Rayleigh Jeans law PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

 Classical average energy (Kinetic theory) per standing wave

ε = KT
here, k- Boltzmann constant =1.381×10-23J/K ; T- Absolute
temperature
 The total energy per unit volume in the cavity in the frequency between ν
and ν + dν is
u(ν)dν = ( modes in cavity in range dν) × (average energy of modes)
𝟖𝝅𝒌𝑻𝝂𝟐 𝒅𝝂
𝑈(ν)d ν= 𝑪𝟑 Rayleigh Jeans Law

19
 PHY1701
Comparison between Classical and Quantum viewpoint Dr. Ajitha

There is a good fit at long wavelengths, but at short wavlengths there is a

major disagreement. Rayleigh-Jeans ∞, but Black-body 0.
20
 PHY1701
The Ultraviolet Catastrophe (Rayleigh Jeans Law) Dr. Ajitha

Theory & experiment

disagree wildly

2𝜋𝑐𝑘𝑇
𝐼(𝜆, 𝑇) =
𝜆4

 Rayleigh- Jeans' law is roughly in agreement with the thermal

radiation curves at shorter frequencies.
 at longer frequencies, it gives infinite energy density as  increases 
 . This is clearly unphysical.
 The failure of the classical wave theory to explain the observed
radiation curve in the ultraviolet end of the electromagnetic
spectrum is known as ultraviolet catastrophe .
21
 Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (1858-1947)

Introduced the concept of

“quantum of action” to explain
the blackbody radiation

In 1918 he was awarded the

Nobel Prize for the discovery of
the quantized nature of energy
 PHY1701
Plancks Quantum Thoery Dr. Ajitha

 Energy is not emitted or absorbed continuously . It is

emitted or absorbed in the form of wave packets or
quanta.
 The amount of energy associated with quantum of
radiation is directly preportinal to the frequncy(γ)

E  h 
Where, h=Planck’s Constant=6.626×10-34 J.s = 6.55 × 10−27 erg.s

 Thus, greater the wavelenght of radiation, lower will be

the energy

23
 PHY1701
Planck's Quantum Thoery Dr. Ajitha

 Max Planck, and others, had no way of knowing whether the

calculation of the number of modes in the cavity, or the average
energy per mode (i.e. kinetic theory), was the problem. It turned
out to be the latter.
 Max Planck, just discarded the idea of radiation being a
continuous stream as well as law of equipartition of energy.
 Planck found an empirical formula that fit the data, and then
made appropriate changes to the classical calculation so as to
obtain the desired result, which was non-classical.
 The problem boils down to the fact that there is no connection
between the energy and the frequency of an oscillator in
classical physics.
 Here, h is a fundamental constant, now known as Planck's
constant. Although Planck knew of no physical reason for doing
this, he is credited with the birth of quantum mechanics.
24
 PHY1701
PLANCKS HYPOTHESIS Dr. Ajitha

1. A black body radiation chamber is filled up not only with

radiation, but also with simple harmonic oscillators or
resonators of molecular dimensions.
2. They can vibrate with all possible frequencies. The
absorption of energy is by the harmonic oscillators.
3. These oscillators absorb/emit only discrete energies
En = nhν where, n = 0,1,2,3…
4. The emission of radiation corresponds to a decrase and
absorption to an increase in the energy and amplitude of
an oscillator
5. The Energy of the oscillator is weighed by the Boltzman
distribution instead of equipartition

25
Planck's Law of radiation PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

 Thus the possible energy of a mode with frequency ν is nhν

where n =1,2….
 According to Boltzmann distribution, the probability of a mode
having an energy E at a temperature T is given by exp(-βE) ,
where β=(1/kT)
 k is the Boltzmann constant and T is the absolute temperature.
 Thus the average energy of a mode is

Average energy of a mode of frequency

according to quantum theory

𝟖𝝅𝒉𝝂𝟑 𝒅𝝂
𝑈(𝝂)d ν= 𝟑 Planck radiation formula
𝑪 (𝒆𝒙𝒑 [𝒉𝒗/𝒌𝑻]− 𝟏)

The Planck distribution in terms of the energy density of radiation

per unit frequency interval
26
Planck's Law of radiation PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

For Low Frequencies, hν<< kT and hν/kT <<1 , In general

If hν/kT is small ,

As, hν<< kT ,
𝟖𝝅𝒌𝑻𝝂𝟐 𝒅𝝂
𝑈(𝝂)d ν=
𝑪𝟑

Which is the Rayleigh Jeans Law

27
Planck's Law of radiation PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

For high Frequencies, The Wien approximation may be

derived from Planck's law by assuming hν>> kT and
ehν/kT ∞,
𝑈(𝝂)d ν 0
No more ultraviolet catastrophe is observed.

𝑈(𝝂)d ν=𝟎
Which is the Wien's Law. so Planck's law approximately
equals the Wien approximation at high frequencies

28
 Wavelengt
h
Frequency
()
 PHY1701
Exercise Dr. Ajitha

The speed of EM waves

Q1 - Which of the following has the higher frequency
1. visible light or UV (choose one)
2. X-rays or radio waves (choose one)

Q2- Which of the following pairs has the longer

wavelength:
1. Infrared or Ultraviolet (choose one)
2. Gamma rays or Radio waves (choose one)

31