Experiment 1 Determination of Planck’s Constant

EXPERIMENT 1
DETERMINATION OF
PLANCK’S CONSTANT

Structure
1.1 Introduction 1.3 Procedure
Expected Skills 1.4 Calculations
1.2 Theory

1.1 INTRODUCTION
From your school physics curriculum you may recall that transmission of thermal energy
(heat) takes place from one point to another by conduction, convection and radiation.
Thermal energy from the sun reaches the earth through radiation. Similarly, when we stand d
near a fire, we feel heat due to radiation. From your +2 physics, you may be aware that in
radiation, energy is transported without active participation of the intervening medium. Do you
know that radiation is the main mechanism for energy transfer in large systems such as the
solar system, interstellar space and galaxies?

You now know that all bodies radiate by virtue of temperature at the expense of their internal
energy. However, the intensity and the rate of emission increase with temperature. For
instance, at room temperature, most of the energy is radiated in the far infrared region but at
the temperature of the outer surface of the Sun (6000K), it lies in the visible region. You may
have seen a blacksmith heating a piece of iron in his furnace to create different implements.
The colour of iron changes from dull red to reddish yellow and ‘white’ as it is heated
continuously.

You may also recall from your school classes that thermal radiations are electromagnetic in
nature and akin to light but for the wavelength, which lies in the infra-red region (> 800 nm)
and produces sensation of warmth in human body. That is why an enclosure maintained at a
constant temperature can be considered to be filled with electromagnetic radiation in thermal
equilibrium with the walls. The electromagnetic radiation trapped in a cavity is called black
body radiation and constitutes a simple thermodynamic system.
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BPHCL-136 Thermal Physics and Statistical Mechanics: Laboratory
A complete understanding of the behaviour of black body radiation required
scientific creativity of the highest order; it changed physicists’ view of nature
and opened totally new perspectives. You will agree that physics is an
experimental science and our vast knowledge pool has genesis in the
confirmation of theoretical predictions by experiments. Theory is invariably
modified in the light of experimental evidences. This happened in the case of
blackbody radiation also.

In the early days of blackbody radiation, theoretical explanations were given

by Wien and Rayleigh-Jeans based on laws of thermodynamics and the
principle of equipartition of energy, which favours continuous energy
exchange. These had limited success in explaining the observed results for
complete range of wavelengths. In this scenario, Planck made a drastic
assumption that radiation involves discontinuous energy exchange. He based
his argument on the following two postulates:

x exchange of energy between matter (walls) and radiation (cavity) takes

place in bundles of a certain size, and

x the quantum of exchange is directly proportional to its frequency. That is,

the energy of an oscillator having frequency Q could only be an integral
multiple of hQ , where h is known as Planck’s constant.

Planck presented the following formula for energy density and succeeded in
explaining experimental results of blackbody spectrum in their entirety:

8SQ 2 § hQ ·
uQ d Q ¨ ¸d Q
c © exp(hQ / k BT )  1¹
3

We can determine the value of Planck constant using a method based on

blackbody radiation as well as by using a light emitting diode (LED). For ease
and convenience, here we will use the method based on lightt emitting diodes.

Expected Skills
After performing this experiment, you should be able to:

Direct band gap ™ appreciate internal consistency of concepts in physics;

The lowest energy ™ plot a graph and identify dependent and independent variables; and
state in the conduction
™ determine Planck’ constant using LEDs.
band and highest
energy state in the
valence band are 1.2 THEORY
characterized by
crystal momentum (k- A light emitting diode is a semiconductor device which emits light when
vector) in the Brillouin current flows through it. (Infra-red LEDs were first produced in 1962 and used
zone. If the crystal
in remote control circuits. The first visible light LEDs were of low intensity and
momentum for valence
limited to red light. Now-a-days, LEDs are available corresponding to visible,
band and conduction
band is same, the ultra-violet and infra-red wavelengths as well. White light LEDs are used to
material is said to have light our homes.) Essentially an LED is a p-n junction diode made of gallium
direct band gap. arsenide or indium arsenide for which energy of direct band gap is more than
1.8eV, value necessary for emission of light in visible range. When an electron
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Experiment 1 Determination of Planck’s Constant

combines with a hole, it is accompanied by release of energy in the form of

photons. The colour of light is determined by the energy required for electrons
to cross the band gap of the semiconductor.

In a forward biased p-n junction with voltage V, electrons gain extra energy A p-n junction is said
(= eV), and flow across the junction from n region and re-combine with holes to be forward biased
in p-region leading to emission of photons. If minimum voltage required for when positive
emission of light photon is V0, we can write terminal of a battery
in the external circuit
eV0 R  hQ (1.1) is connected to p-
region.
where R signifies the energy lost in non-radiative recombination and Q is
frequency of the emitted photon. Do you know what non-radiative
recombination is? It is a process in which electrons and holes combine without
emission of a photon. (It means that energy available to the electrons is less
than the threshold energy.) The equation of a
straight line is
In general, R  hQ and we can rewrite Eq. (1.1) as y = mx + C.
eV0 hQ hc / O
h (1.2)

Note that we have replaced Q by c/ O; O being wavelength of emitted

cc/O;
radiation.

y-axis and 1 / O
Eq. (1.2) shows that if we plot a graph by taking V0 along y
along x-axis,
x axis, we will obtain a straight line whose slope m hc / e. Since,
x-
velocity of light c 3 u 108 ms 1) and electronic charge e 1.602 u 1019 C
are standard known constants, you can easily calculate the value of Planck
constant using the relation

h me / c (1.3)

Before discussing the procedure, we list the apparatus required to perform this
experiment.

Apparatus Required

LEDs which can emit light of different colours (wavelengths), 5V battery, a

rheostat, a voltmeter (0-3V), a milli-ammeter, connecting wires and sand
paper.

1.3 PROCEDURE
1. Take connecting wires and clean their ends using sand paper. Do you
know why connecting wires are made of copper and why should you clean
their ends? It is because copper offers almost zero resistance to flow of
current and cleaning minimises external resistance.

2. Now refer to Fig. 1.1. It shows the circuit diagram for the determination of
h using LEDs. Here rheostat is being used as a potential divider. In many
circuits, rheostat is used as a variable resistor. You would have learnt
about the action of a rheostat as a potential divider or a variable resistor
and how it is connected in a circuit in these cases. (It is discussed in
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BPHCL-136 Thermal Physics and Statistical Mechanics: Laboratory
detail in Experiment 10.) You may like to discuss it with your peers or the
counsellor so as to refresh your knowledge.

Fig. 1.1: Circuit diagram for determination of Planck’s constant using LEDs.

3. Note that a voltmeter is connected in parallel with the device across which
you wish to measure the voltage (LED in our case), whereas the ammeter
is connected in series. The voltmeter measures the voltage across the
LED while ammeter gives the value of current flowing through it.
4. In Fig. 1.1, several LEDs that can emit light of different colours are shown.
These are connected in the circuit one by one by joining point O with 1, 2,
3, 4 or 5, at a time.
5. Initially adjust the rheostat so that maximum resistance is included in the
circuit, i.e. keep the slider near point P. Switch on the power supply and
connect O with 1.
6. Now increase voltage across the LED slowly (say, in steps of 0.1V) by
moving the sliding contact (towards Q) and note values of vvoltage
oltage across
the diode and current I passing through it. Record the readings in
Observation Table 1.1. Now slowly decrease the voltage to zero.

7. Next connect O with LED 2 and repeat steps 5 and 6.

8. Continue step 7 for other LE
L Ds and record readings in Observation
LEDs
Table 1.1.

9. When you complete taking observations, plot V-I characteristic for each
LED. You should obtain the plots as shown in Fig. 1.2. Extrapolate the

Fig. 1.2: V-I characteristics for different LEDs.

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Experiment 1 Determination of Planck’s Constant

linear portions of the curves backward to meet x-axis, as shown for one
LED. These will define the minimum voltage at which a particular LED
would start to glow. This is known as turn-on voltage or threshold voltage.
Note the values of turn-on voltage for each LED from your graph.
Alternatively, you can determine turn-on voltage by gradually increasing
voltage across the LED under reference and noting the value at which it
just begins to glow. It may be mentioned here that this method may not
give correct value due to limitations of an individual as well as of the
equipment.

Observation Table 1.1: Variation of Current with Voltage across an LED

LEDs Infrared Red Yellow Green Blue

SL.No. V I V I V I V I V I
(volt) (mA) (volt) (mA) (volt) (mA) (volt) (mA) (volt) (mA)

1.

2.

3.

Observation Table:1.2: For 1 / O vs. V0

O (nm) 1/O (m )

1
No. of Colour of light V0
Obs. emitted (volts)

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.
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BPHCL-136 Thermal Physics and Statistical Mechanics: Laboratory
1.4 CALCULATIONS
1. Note the wavelength corresponding to threshold voltage from table
available in your physics laboratory. (Wavelengths corresponding to
typical colours of LED are also listed in Table 1.1) Enter these values in
Observation Table 1.2 along with corresponding values of V0 .

2. Plot a graph by taking 1 / O along x-axis and V0 along y-axis. It should be

a straight line as shown in Fig. 1.3. Calculate the slope of the straight line.
You should use the maximum span of the graph to minimize errors. Now
you can easily calculate the value of Planck constant using Eq. (1.3).

Fig. 1.3: Plot of threshold voltage with corresponding wavelength.

Result: The calculated value of Planck constant = .......................Js.

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