QUANTUM PHYSICS NOTES FOR CHAPTER 19

Context
A debate raged for several centuries about the nature of light- is it a wave or is it a
particle? It is possible to explain the reflection of light using the particle approach
(kicking a football against a wall) or using a wave approach (water waves reflecting
off a wall). Key figures taking part in this debate have included Sir Isaac Newton
(1660) who proposed that light consists of particles, which he called corpuscles and, a
few years later in 1680 Christiaan Huygens who suggested that light travels as a wave
motion.

If light is a form of wave motion it should exhibit the properties of waves and so
undergo interference and diffraction and produce stationary waves as sound waves do.
There was very little experimental evidence for such behaviour until 1801 and so
Newton's theory was preferred for well over a century.

In 1801 Thomas Young carried out an experiment in which coherent light illuminates
a double slit which is narrow compared to the wavelength of light and so causes the
light to diffract. The light from the double slits overlaps causing interference and the
appearance of a system of light and dark fringes.

This experiment depends on diffraction and interference which are both wave
phenomena and greatly supported Huygens' wave theory which became the accepted
view. (The particle model of light predicts that two bright areas would be formed on
the screen, one from each slit, rather than the many fringes that are observed in
practice).

Photons
In 1902 Max Planck showed that various observations that had recently been made
about the behaviour of electromagnetic radiation could be explained on the basis that
the energy in the radiation is in separate packets rather than as a wave. Each packet or
photon is called a quantum of energy and the amount of energy, E, it carries is given
by E = hf when h is a constant called Planck's constant and f is the frequency of the
radiation. h = 6.63 ´10-34 Js

Note that since c=fλ, f=c/λ and E=hc/λ

In 1905 Einstein proposed that light may be considered as a stream of photons.

The electron volt, eV

The electron volt is a unit of energy. It is not an SI unit, but is commonly used in
Physics because it is often easier to calculate energy in electron volts than in joules
and the numbers that result are often more user-friendly.

Analogy with mechanical energy

Suppose you lift a book with a mass of 0.50kg through a vertical distance of 0.75m.
The book gains potential energy. To calculate the energy the book gains:

But gh is the change in gravitational potential of the book (i.e. the gravitational
potential difference)

Electrical energy

Suppose you have two horizontal metal plates with a battery connected across them as
shown (edge view of plates):

In between the plates there is a positively charged body. Imagine that the body has no
mass, so gravity doesn’t affect it but since it is charged, it will be repelled by the top
plate and attracted to the bottom plate, so it will experience a downwards force.
Now imagine lifting the charged body vertically upwards. It will gain electrical
potential energy. The energy it gains depends on its charge and on how many volts it
moves through.

when Q is the charge on the body and V is

the potential difference (i.e. voltage) that it moves through.
Using SI units, the charge is measured in coulombs, the potential difference is in
volts, and the energy is in joules.

Small charges

The charge on an electron in SI units is -1.6  10-19C. If this charge is moved through
a potential of 15V, then its gain in energy is -1.6  10-19  15 = 2.4  10-18J. This
is not a user friendly number, so people who work with such calculations decided to
think of the charge on an electron as –1 instead of -1.6  10-19C. In doing so, they
broke the rule about using SI units, but they made life a lot easier. For example when
an electron is moved through a potential difference of 15V, it gains 1  15 = 15
electron volts, written 15eV.

Definition of the electron volt, eV

The electron volt is the amount of energy “gained” (or “lost”) when an electron moves
through a potential difference of one volt. Hence:

GeV and MeV

The electron volt is itself too small to give convenient numbers in many situations and
in these cases mega-electron volts, MeV and giga-electron volts, GeV are used.

Exchanging the electrical potential energy and kinetic energy of a charged

particle

From the above, the electrical potential energy of a charged particle is found using
QV, when Q is the charge of the particle and V is the potential difference through
which it moves.
The kinetic energy of a particle is found using , when m is the mass of the
particle and v is its velocity.
If a charged particle is accelerated when moving through an electric field, its electrical
potential energy is turned into kinetic energy.
Hence: . SI units should be used throughout.

Transposing this equation gives: which enables the velocity of the particle
to be found.
If the particle is an electron, the letter e is used for charge, so etc.
Estimating Planck’s constant using an LED

When an LED conducts, the electrical potential energy lost by each electron that
flows though it is given to a single photon. Knowing this, . If e, c and λ are
known (λ is given by the manufacturer), and the voltage across the LED is measured,
then h can be calculated. If different coloured LED’s are available, a graph of V
against can be drawn and its gradient equals .

The Discovery of Photo electricity

In 1887 Hertz discovered a phenomenon called photo electricity and in 1902 the
following demonstration was carried out (Hallwachs and Lenard).

Explanation: photoelectrons are released from the zinc but are attracted back to the
positive electroscope, so its charge doesn't change and the leaf stays up. The
photoelectrons are repelled by the negative electroscope and so it looses charge and
the leaf falls.
Room lighting has no effect on either electroscope.

The laws of photoelectric emission.

1. Emission of photoelectrons only happens if the frequency of the incident radiation

is above a minimum value called the threshold frequency. (In the demonstration the
frequency of the UV radiation is above the threshold frequency for zinc but visible
light is not).

2. The number of photoelectrons emitted per second is proportional to the intensity of

the incident radiation. (In the demonstration the rate of discharge increases as the
lamp is brought nearer).

3. Emission starts at the instant the surface is irradiated.

4. Emitted electrons have kinetic energies that range from zero up to a maximum
value that depends on the frequency of the radiation. The intensity of the radiation has
no effect on the kinetic energy of the emitted electrons.

The wave theory of light suggests that each surface electron would absorb an equal
share of radiation and hence, at very low radiation intensity, either no electrons would
receive enough energy to escape or that it would take some time for enough energy to
be acquired. Also, as the intensity of the light increased so should the energies of the
emitted electrons. The wave theory suggests that electrons should be emitted
regardless of the frequency of the incident light. These predictions are inconsistent
with observation so the wave theory is not applicable here.
Einstein suggested in 1905 that light can be thought of as a stream of particles called
photons, each of which has energy hf. When a photon collides with an electron it must
give up all its energy or be reflected without losing any energy. The energy of one
photon can be given only to one electron (not shared). Some of the energy given to a
photoelectron is used to release it and the rest appears as the kinetic energy of the
photoelectron.

The above can be summarised in Einstein's photoelectric equation:

when: hf = energy of an incident photon of frequency f

f = minimum energy required to release an electron, called the work function

= maximum kinetic energy of an emitted electron

Particles behaving as waves

The last section describes the developments that lead to the acceptance that
electromagnetic radiation (which is often thought of as a wave) can be treated as
energy in the form of discrete particles or quanta. In 1925 de Broglie (“de Broy " )
proposed that a particle has a wavelength associated with it and that this de Broglie
wavelength, l, is given by:
when h = Plank's constant and p = the momentum of the particle

Considering an electron travelling at one third the speed of light:

when: m = the mass of the electron and v is its velocity.

This is smaller than the diameter of an atom and about a hundred thousand times
smaller than the wavelength of visible light. Notice that unless the mass of the particle
is extremely small, the wavelength associated with it will be so small that wave
effects will not be noticed. For example the wavelength of a billiard ball travelling at
one metre per second is about 10-33 m. A billiard ball clearly won't pass though a gap
of such a size so no diffraction effects will be noticed.
The intensity of a de Broglie wave at a point represents the probability of the
associated particle being there.
Since the wavelength associated with electrons is smaller than an atom it should be
possible to use the lattice of atoms in a crystal as a diffraction grating. In 1927
electrons were first diffracted by Davisson and Germer using a single crystal of nickel
as the diffraction " grating ". The atoms of the crystal work as diffraction centres.
Electron diffraction can be demonstrated using a very thin layer of carbon
(polycrystalline graphite) as shown:
Theory
Gain of k.e. of electrons = \ and

so l

Diffraction of electrons by matter can be used to determine the arrangement of atoms

and the size of nuclei.

Double slit interference can also be produced using electrons showing that electrons
can be diffracted at each slit and the resulting beams produce an interference pattern
where they overlap. The bright fringes correspond to regions with a high probability
of the arrival of an electron. Each electron arrives as a particle and is registered by the
detector.

QUANTUM PHYSICS NOTES FOR CHAPTER 20

Energy levels of atoms

In 1913 Neils Bohr suggested that an atom has a number of separate energy levels.
The levels are characteristic of the particular type of atom. An atom cannot have any
energies between these allowed levels and so the energy levels that an atom can have
are not continuously variable, but are in steps or quanta. The energy of an atom in this
context is the energy of its electrons and the negatively charged electrons can be
visualized to occupy the allowed energy levels as they orbit the positively charged
nucleus.

Energy levels are described by their quantum number, n, where n can be 1, 2, 3 etc. n
= 1 is called the ground state. A picture of the hydrogen atom can be built up on this
basis:
n= 0eV electron free ( atom ionized )

n=5 -0.54eV
n=4 -0.85eV
Energy
n=3 -1.51eV increasing
to zero, so
must be
negative
n=2 -3.39eV

n=1 -13.6eV Ground state ( most stable )

When an atom is raised from the ground state to a higher energy level it is said to
have been excited. The energy required to excite an electron is called the excitation
energy. If the excitation energy is in eV, then the associated potential, V, is known as
the excitation potential. For example, the excitation energy to raise the hydrogen atom
from the ground state to n=4 is:

(-0.85)- (-13.6) = 12.75eV and the associated excitation potential is 12.75V.

The amount of energy needed to just remove an electron from an atom is called the
ionization energy, and the associated potential is called the ionization potential. The
ionization energy for hydrogen is given by 0- (-13.6) = 13.6 eV and the ionization
potential is 13.6V. If an atom receives more energy than this, the excess energy is
transferred to kinetic energy of the electron when it has left the atom. The free
electron can have a continuous range of energies.

An excited atom is unstable and falls back to a lower energy level. Bohr proposed that
the energy given off is released as electromagnetic radiation. If an atom falls from one
permitted energy level to another, the energy of the photon released will equal the
difference between the two energy levels. Since the energy of a photon is hf, the
frequency of the emitted radiation is determined by the energy difference between the
two levels concerned:
when is the higher energy level and is the lower one.
Thus only certain frequencies of light should be given off with no light at intermediate
frequencies. The resulting spectrum will contain lines at each frequency given off and
is called a line spectrum. The fact that low pressure gasses give of line spectra
provides experimental evidence for the existence of quantized energy levels in an
atom.
Band spectra are produced by more complex gas molecules (e.g. O2) and continuous
spectra by solids (e.g. the filament in an incandescent light bulb) and liquids.

The spectra discussed so far have all been emission spectra, i.e. they have all been
emitted by something. There is another type of spectrum called an absorption
spectrum. These are formed when a gas absorbs radiation at its characteristic
wavelengths from a continuous spectrum. This creates dark lines at the same
frequencies where there would be lines of light in an emission spectrum. A well
known example of this is the (dark) Fraunhoffer lines that are observed in the in the
otherwise continuous spectrum received on earth from the sun. These are caused by
absorption at specific frequencies by gasses through which the sunlight travels on its
way to the surface of the earth.
The lines in an absorption spectrum look black because although the radiation that has
been absorbed by the atom is given off again as radiation when the electron fall back
to a more stable state, the emitted radiation is given off in all directions whereas the
original radiation was directed in one particular direction. Thus the intensity of the re-
radiated energy in the direction of the observer is much less than that of the original
light.

Band Spectrum
Continuous Spectrum