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Lecture 3 Compton Effect

The Compton effect describes X-rays scattering off materials like graphite and emerging with longer wavelengths than the incident X-rays. Compton explained this phenomenon by proposing that electromagnetic radiation behaves as both waves and particles (photons). In Compton scattering experiments, the wavelength shift is due to photons transferring momentum and energy to target electrons. Compton's model quantitatively explained the wavelength shifts measured and provided strong evidence that electromagnetic radiation consists of photons.

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38 views

Lecture 3 Compton Effect

The Compton effect describes X-rays scattering off materials like graphite and emerging with longer wavelengths than the incident X-rays. Compton explained this phenomenon by proposing that electromagnetic radiation behaves as both waves and particles (photons). In Compton scattering experiments, the wavelength shift is due to photons transferring momentum and energy to target electrons. Compton's model quantitatively explained the wavelength shifts measured and provided strong evidence that electromagnetic radiation consists of photons.

Uploaded by

toobazufiqar81
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Modern Physics

BS-IV

Lecture 3
Compton Effect

Compton Effect

❑ The Compton effect is the term used for an unusual result observed when X-rays are scattered on some
materials.
❑ By classical theory, when an electromagnetic wave is scattered off atoms, the wavelength of the scattered
radiation is expected to be the same as the wavelength of the incident radiation.

❑ Contrary to this prediction of classical physics, observations show that when X-rays are scattered off some
materials, such as graphite, the scattered X-rays have different wavelengths from the wavelength of the
incident X-rays.

❑ This classically unexplainable phenomenon was studied experimentally by Arthur H.


Compton and his collaborators, and Compton gave its explanation in 1923.
❑ To explain the shift in wavelengths measured in the experiment, Compton used Einstein’s idea of light
as a particle. The Compton effect has a very important place in the history of physics because it shows
that electromagnetic radiation cannot be explained as a purely wave phenomenon.

❑ The explanation of the Compton effect gave a convincing argument to the physics community that
electromagnetic waves can indeed behave like a stream of photons, which placed the concept of a photon
on firm ground.
Experimental Setup

Figure: Experimental setup for studying Compton scattering.


Experimental Setup

❑ The idea of the experiment is straightforward: Monochromatic X-rays with wavelength λ are incident
on a sample of graphite (the “target”), where they interact with atoms inside the sample; they later
emerge as scattered X-rays with wavelength λ′.
❑ A detector placed behind the target can measure the intensity of radiation scattered in any direction θ
with respect to the direction of the incident X-ray beam.

❑ This scattering angle (θ) is the angle between the direction of the scattered beam and the direction of
the incident beam.

The Experiment

A graphite target was bombarded with


monochromatic x-rays and the wavelength of the
scattered radiation was measured with a rotating
crystal spectrometer.
Compton measured the dependence of scattered
x-ray intensity on wavelength at three different
scattering angles of 𝟎𝒐,
𝟒𝟓𝒐, 𝟗𝟎𝒐and 𝟏𝟑𝟓𝒐.
The longer-wavelength peak represents Compton .
scattering. The shorterwavelength peak, labelled is at the
wavelength of the incident x-rays and corresponds to x-
ray scattering from tightly bound electrons. In such
scattering processes the entire atom must recoil, so the m
in Eq. is the mass of the entire atom rather than of a single
electron. The resulting wavelength shifts are negligible.
Figure: Intensity as a function of wavelength
for photons scattered at an angle of 135° in a Compton
scattering experiment
For Molybdenum x-rays

𝐾𝛼𝜆 = 0.0709 𝑛𝑚 and its energy 𝐸𝐾𝛼 = 17.49 𝑘𝑒𝑉.


From Experiment: for 900,

𝜆𝑓 = 0.0731 𝑛𝑚

The difference is

𝜆𝑒 = = 0.0024 𝑛𝑚
Compton Explanation
Put simply, a photon that has lost some of its energy emerges as a photon with a lower frequency, or
equivalently, with a longer wavelength.
To show that his model was correct, Compton used it to derive the expression for the Compton shift. In
his derivation, he assumed that both photon and electron are relativistic particles, and that the collision
obeys two commonsense principles:

1. the conservation of linear momentum and

2. the conservation of total relativistic energy.

Scattering data measured for molybdenum, graphite, calcite, and many other target materials are in
accord with this theoretical result.
As given by Compton, the explanation of the Compton shift is that in the target material, graphite, valence
electrons are loosely bound in the atoms and behave like free electrons.
Compton assumed that the incident X-ray radiation is a stream of photons. An incoming photon in this
stream collides with a valence electron in the graphite target.
During this collision, the incoming photon transfers some part of its energy and momentum to the target
electron and leaves the scene as a scattered photon.
This model explains in qualitative terms why the scattered radiation has a longer wavelength than the
incident radiation.
❑ Compton scattering is an example of inelastic scattering, in which the scattered radiation has a longer
wavelength than the wavelength of the incident radiation. In today’s usage, the term “Compton scattering”
is used for the inelastic scattering of photons by free, charged particles.

❑ In Compton scattering, treating photons as particles with momenta that can be transferred to charged particles
provides the theoretical background to explain the wavelength shifts measured in experiments; this is the
evidence that radiation consists of photons.

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