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Smartphone-based measurement of the Planck’s constant with light-

emitting diodes
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 Frontline
Phys. Educ. 54 (2019) 023007 (5pp) iopscience.org/ped

Smartphone-based measurement
of the Planck’s constant with
light-emitting diodes
Unofre Pili and Renante Violanda
Department of Physics, University of San Carlos, Cebu City 6000, Philippines

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
Presented in this article is an alternative and cost-effective method for
measuring Planck’s constant with light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Essential in
the presentation is the apparent linear plot of the voltage against light intensity
associated to each LED; such a plot reveals the threshold or minimum voltage
that turns on the LED. Those threshold voltages associated to all LEDs
used are theoretically related to the frequency of the emitted light and to the
Planck’s constant. Hence, in the experiment presented, the determination of
the value of Planck’s constant to be equal to 6.1(±1)  ×  10−34 Js. This result is
in error by 7.9% in comparison to the accepted value of 6.626 075 54  ×  10−34
Js but it appears to be good enough for educational use.

1. Introduction that needs to be measured directly using the setup

In modern physics one of the fundamental con- is the threshold voltage, Vo, needed to turn on the
stants of nature that the students are introduced LED. For this specific objective one technique
to is Planck’s constant. Therefore, it is really fit- simply employs a voltmeter which is very limited
and prone to human error. For another the method
ting to demonstrate the value of it in an interactive
takes into account the I–V curves of LEDs but
lecture session or task, so the students can mea-
this is similarly error-prone because of the appar-
sure it in a full-length laboratory activity. Indeed,
ent lack of a specific feature of the I–V curves
for the same reason a number of methods for
that reveals the threshold voltages of the LEDs.
measuring Planck’s constant have already been
One recent related work [2] utilizes the discharg-
produced. Historically, Robert Andrew Millikan ing curve of a capacitor connected in series with
first determined the value of Planck’s constant an LED and a current limiting resistor. The dis-
based on Albert Einstein’s theoretical work on charging curve of the capacitor decays to a cer-
the photoelectric effect; for which work, together tain volt­age rather than decaying to zero. Such
with the determination of the charge of the elec- voltage is the threshold voltage of the LED. The
tron, Millikan won the Nobel Prize in Physics in result of this technique is remarkably accurate in
1923. The photoelectric effect method [1] yields measuring threshold voltages of LEDs, thus an
very accurate results but the process and setup accurate measurement of Planck’s constant. The
are apparently not one that is quick and handy experimental setup however may not be as avail-
for classroom use. A popular technique for edu- able in many schools employing the commer-
cational demonstration is one that employs light- cial Vernier’s LabPro® and a computer running
emitting diodes (LEDs) and the primary quantity Logger Pro®, also a commercial software. This

1361-6552/19/023007+5$33.00 1 © 2019 IOP Publishing Ltd

U Pili and R Violanda
article presents a handy alternative method for Table 1. Nominal wavelengths of the LEDs
the measurement of the threshold voltages of an used from which values and the speed of light the
frequencies were computed.
assortment of LEDs, leading to the determination
of Planck’s constant. The setup is still LED-based LED λ (nm) f (THz)
with a smartphone, its built-in ambient light sen-
Red 660 454.242
sor being the other primary material. The use of Green 565 530.619
the smartphone ambient light sensor in physics Blue 430 697.209
experiments has become established and effective Yellow 585 512.479
[3, 4]. Orange 644 465.839

2. Theoretical background
An LED is just like an ordinary P–N junction
diode such that when forward-biased, electrons
and holes recombine with the electrons losing
energy. Throughout this recombination process,
electrons jump from the conduction band to the
valence band which is a transition of electrons
from higher energy state to lower energy state,
resulting in the loss of energy by the electrons.
The energy, Ee, lost by an electron is related to the
electron charge, e  =1.6022  ×  10−19 C, and the
threshold voltage, Vo, of an LED by the formula:
Ee = eVo .
(1)
The transition of an electron from higher to lower
energy state causes an emission of a photon (LED Figure 1. Experimental setup sans a computer running
emitting light). The energy, Ep, of the photon is MS Excel.
given by the formula:
Ep = hf . Table 2. Data for the voltage, V, and light intensity, I,
(2)
for each LED color. The voltage is in volts; intensity
In equation (2), h is Planck’s constant while f is is in lux.
the frequency of the photon emitted by an elec- Blue Red Orange
tron. Conservation of energy entails that Ep = Eg
or V I V I V I

Ee = hf .
(3) 2.60 3.00 1.90 3.00 2.00 3.00
2.80 6.00 2.10 9.00 2.30 8.00
Therefore, with known values of threshold volt­ 2.90 10.00 2.40 13.00 2.40 10.00
3.00 18.00 2.00 6.00 2.10 5.00
ages, Vos, that allow for the computation of Ee or 3.20 28.00 2.30 11.00 1.80 1.00
Ep using equation (1) the value of Planck’s con-
stant can be obtained by plotting equations (2) or
(3), Ee or Ep against f. The slope of the expected Table 3. Data for the voltage, V, and light intensity, I,
linear fit to the data points being Planck’s constant. for each LED color. The voltage is in volts; intensity is
in lux (continuation of table 1).

3. Experimental procedure Yellow Green

In table 1 is presented the nominal emission V I V I

wavelength [2, 5], λ (nm), and frequency, f 2.00 3.00 2.50 6.00
(THz), of the light emitted by each LED. The 2.40 8.00 2.80 10.00
frequency was obtained by dividing the speed of 1.50 1.00 3.00 15.00
2.20 6.00 3.20 18.00
light, c  =  3.0  ×  108 m s−1, by the wavelength. 2.30 9.00 2.90 13.00
To obtain the threshold voltage, Vo, we took into

March 2019 2 Phys. Educ. 54 (2019) 023007

 Smartphone-based measurement of the Planck’s constant with light emitting diodes

Red LED
3.00
Voltage (V)

2.00
V = 0.0509I + 1.71
1.00 R2 = 0.954

0.00
0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00 14.00
Intensity (Iux)

Green LED Blue LED

3.00 3.00
Voltage (V)

Voltage (V)
2.00 V = 0.0556I + 2.19 V = 0.0213I + 2.62
2.00
R2 = 0.984 R2 = 0.928
1.00 1.00

0.00 0.00
0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00
Intensity (Iux) Intensity (Iux)
Yellow LED Orange LED
3.00 3.00
Voltage (V)

2.00 2.00
Voltage (V)

V = 0.0650X + 1.77
V = 0.0593I + 1.84 R2 = 0.987
1.00 R2 = 0.924 1.00

0.00 0.00
0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 0.00 2.00 4.00 6.00 8.00 10.00 12.00
Intensity (Iux) Intensity (Iux)

Figure 2. Plots of voltage, V, against intensity, I, associated to all LEDs used. The y -intercept of each line of best
fit (solid line in red) is the threshold voltage,Vo, of a particular LED.

Table 4. Threshold voltage,Vo, and corresponding

energy, Ep,of photon associated to each of the five 5.00
LEDs. The uncertainty in Vo, obtained by linear
regression, ensures emission of photon.
Energy (×10–19 J)

4.00
LED Vo (V) Ep (×10−19 J)
Red 1.71 ± 0.06 4.34 ± 0.15
3.00 E = 6.1(±1) × 10−34 f
Green 2.19 ± 0.05 3.51 ± 0.08 R2 = 0.921
Blue 2.62 ± 0.05 4.19 ± 0.08
Yellow 1.84 ± 0.06 2.95 ± 0.10
Orange 1.77 ± 0.03 2.84 ± 0.05 2.00
4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00 8.00
Frequency (×1014 Hz)
account five voltage, V, data points (for each
LED) with the corresponding intensity, I, of
light measured with a smartphone ambient light Figure 3. Plot of energy of photon against frequency.
Solid line in red is the line of best fit to the data points.
sensor. This idea is based on the information
The slope of which is the value of Planck’s constant.
[6, 7]—with a current-limiting resistor in place—
that the intensity of the light emitted by LEDs plot would give the value of Vo. The experimental
behaves linearly with voltage such that the inter- setup is shown in figure 1. The primary materials
cept of the voltage against intensity, V versus I, are LEDs (red, green, blue, yellow, and orange),

March 2019 3 Phys. Educ. 54 (2019) 023007

U Pili and R Violanda
a 110-Ω current limiting resistor, a dc-power sup- rather than being totally gained by the photon, the
ply unit and a smartphone running an Android effect of the particular band gap structure of the
application called Physics Toolbox Sensor Suite LED material and the width of the emission spec-
[8] that launches the ambient light sensor of the trum of each LED. Therefore, one contributory
smartphone. Our complete data set is presented in way in improving the result of this experiment is
tables 2 and 3 (a continuation of table 2). to use measured values of the wavelengths from
emission spectra of the LEDs.
Rather than using the nominal emission
4. Experimental results wavelengths or just using peak frequencies. A
Plotting the voltage, V, against intensity, I, associ- determination of the speed of light, c, and the
ated to each LED, the values of Vo—being equal charge on an electron, e, are alternative activities
to the y -intercept of the resulting linear fit—were that can be accomplished with the same setup.
obtained. Shown in figure 2 are the voltage against
intensity plots for all the LEDs used. The voltages, Acknowledgment
Vos, and the photon energies, Eps, associated to all
LEDs used are reflected in table 4. Equation (1) We are grateful to the University of San Carlos
was employed to obtain the values of the photon for its continued support, in terms of research and
energy. Finally plotting the energy, Ep, against publications, to its faculty and staff. We are as
frequency, f , and subsequently performing linear well thankful to Sr. Julianne Marjorie Pili, CSJB,
regression on the data points, Planck’s constant for the purchase of the LEDs.
was obtained to be equal to 6.1 (±1)  ×  10−34 J s.
which is the slope of the best fit line, as pre- Received 28 December 2018
dicted by equation (3), indicated in figure 3. This Accepted for publication 24 January 2019
https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6552/ab0185
result differs by 7.9% from the accepted value of
6.626 075 54  ×  10−34 J s. but satisfactory enough References
for educational purposes. The observed discrep- [1] Keesing R G 1981 The measurement of Planck’s
ancy could very well provide students an exercise constant using the visible photoelectric effect
for quantitative error analysis. Eur. J. Phys. 2 139–49
[2] Zhou F and Cloninger T 2008 Computer-based
experiment for determining Planck’s constant
5. Conclusions and recommendations using LEDs Phys. Teach. 46 413–5
[3] Pili U and Violanda R 2018 A simple pendulum-
It has emerged that by measuring the intensity of
based measurement of g with a smartphone
light emitted by LEDs, using a smartphone, and light sensor Phys. Educ. 53 043001
plotting the voltage against it, the minimum or [4] Salinas I, Gimenez M H, Monsoriu J A and
threshold voltage that to turn on the LED can be Palacio J C C 2018 Characterization of linear
determined. light sources with the smartphone’s ambient
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[5] Nieves L, Spavieri G, Fernandez B and
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sents a significant degree of reliability and consist- constant with LEDs Phys. Teach. 35 108–9
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an introductory modern physics course. A 7.9% [7] Vilx 2016 Does LED Brightness Change with
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Stack Exchange) (https://electronics.
stant is substantial but then again, such an error stackexchange.com/questions/256336/
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analysis—the possible causes of errors mostly. [8] Vieyra Software Tools Physics Toolbox Sensor
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stant, in fact, cannot be as accurate as possible in apps/details?id=com.chrystianvieyra.
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energy lost by an electron is transformed into heat 43 367–70

March 2019 4 Phys. Educ. 54 (2019) 023007

 Smartphone-based measurement of the Planck’s constant with light emitting diodes
Unofre Pili is currently working Renante Violanda also teaches, both
towards his PhD in physics. His major and non-major physics subjects,
dissertation research topic is in the area at the University of San Carlos and is
of high-temperature superconductivity. currently working towards his PhD in
Teaching introductory physics at the physics on a dissertation topic in an
University of San Carlos, he is also application of white noise calculus. He
into designing accessible and is also very proficient in signals and
cost-effective introductory physics experiments. systems and instrumentation.

March 2019 5 Phys. Educ. 54 (2019) 023007