Lecture 15.

Early Quantum Theory

 Attempts to explain the behavior of matter on the atomic
level with the laws of classical physics were consistently
unsuccessful.

• Blackbody radiation
- electromagnetic radiation emitted by a heated object.

• Photoelectric effect
- the emission of electrons by illuminated metals

• Atomic spectrum of atoms

- the emission of sharp spectral lines by gas atoms.
 Between 1900 and 1930, a modern version of mechanics called quantum
mechanics was highly successful in explaining the behavior of atoms,
molecules, and nuclei.
 The earliest ideas of quantum theory were introduced by Planck, and
most of the subsequent mathematical developments, interpretations,
and improvements were made by a number of distinguished physicists,
including Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, de Broglie, Heisenberg, Born, and
Dirac.
 One of the observations that was unexplained
at the end of the nineteenth century was the
spectrum of light emitted by hot objects.
 As the temperature increases, the
electromagnetic radiation emitted by objects
not only increases in total intensity but has its
peak intensity at higher and higher
frequencies.
 The spectrum of light emitted by a hot dense
object is shown in for an idealized blackbody.
 A blackbody is a body that would absorb all
the radiation falling on it.
 The radiation such an idealized blackbody
would emit when hot and luminous, called
blackbody radiation.
 At lower temperatures, the total intensity
drops considerably and the peak occurs at
longer wavelengths (or lower frequencies).
(This is why objects glow with a red color at
around 1000 K.)

 It is found experimentally that the

wavelength at the peak of the spectrum, λP,
is related to the Kelvin temperature T by

 This is known as Wien’s law.

 Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory had
predicted that oscillating electric charges
produce electromagnetic waves, and the
radiation emitted by a hot object could be due
to the oscillations of electric charges in the
molecules of the material.
 Although this would explain where the
radiation came from, it did not correctly
predict the observed spectrum of emitted
light.
 Two important theoretical curves based on
classical ideas were those proposed by W.
Wien (in 1896) and by Lord Rayleigh (in 1900).
 As experimental data came in, it became clear
that neither Wien’s nor the Rayleigh-Jeans
formulations were in accord with experiment.
 In the year 1900 Max Planck (1858-1947)
proposed an empirical formula that nicely fit
the data (now often called Planck’s radiation
formula):

 I(λ, T) is the radiation intensity as a function of

wavelength λ at the temperature T; k is
Boltzman’s constant, c is the speed of light,
and h is a new constant, now called Planck’s
constant.
 The value of h was estimated by Planck by
fitting his formula for the blackbody radiation
curve to experiment (and the fit was
excellent). The value accepted today is
 To provide a theoretical basis for his formula, Planck made a new and
radical assumption: that the energy of the oscillations of atoms within
molecules cannot have just any value; instead each has energy which is a
multiple of a minimum value related to the frequency of oscillation by

 Planck’s assumption suggests that the energy of any molecular vibration

could be only a whole number multiple of hf :

where n is called a quantum number (“quantum” means “discrete amount”

as opposed to “continuous”). This idea is often called Planck’s quantum
hypothesis.
 So, according to Planck light propagates as tiny particles!
 The stairs are “quantized”, but the
ramp is continuous.
 Experiments showed that light incident on certain metallic
surfaces caused the emission of electrons from the
surfaces. This phenomenon is known as the photoelectric
effect, and the emitted electrons are called
photoelectrons.
An evacuated glass tube known as a photocell contains a
metal plate E (the emitter) connected to the negative
terminal of a variable power supply. Another metal plate,
C (the collector), is maintained at a positive potential by
the power supply. When the tube is kept in the dark, the
ammeter reads zero, indicating that there is no current in
the circuit. When plate E is illuminated by light having a
wavelength shorter than some particular wavelength that
depends on the material used to make plate E, however, a
current is detected by the ammeter, indicating a flow of
charges across the gap between E and C. This current
arises from photoelectrons emitted from the negative
plate E and collected at the positive plate C.
 at large values of ΔV, the
current reaches a maximum
value.
 the current increases as the
incident light intensity
increases
 when the power supply in the
circuit is reversed to make E
positive and C negative — the
current drops to a low value
 No electrons are emitted if the incident light frequency falls below some
cutoff frequency fc , also called the threshold frequency, which is
characteristic of the material being illuminated. This fact is inconsistent with
the wave theory, which predicts that the photoelectric effect should occur at
any frequency, provided the light intensity is sufficiently high.
 The maximum kinetic energy of the photoelectrons is independent of light
intensity. According to wave theory, light of higher intensity should carry
more energy into the metal per unit time and therefore eject photoelectrons
having higher kinetic energies.
 The maximum kinetic energy of the photoelectrons increases with increasing
light frequency. The wave theory predicts no relationship between
photoelectron energy and incident light frequency.
 Electrons are emitted from the surface almost instantaneously even at low
light intensities. Classically, we expect the photoelectrons to require some
time to absorb the incident radiation before they acquire enough kinetic
energy to escape from the metal.
 A successful explanation of the photoelectric effect was given by Einstein
in 1905 (Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921).
 Einstein suggested that a tiny packet of light energy or photon would be
emitted when a quantized oscillator made a jump from the one energy
state to the next lower state.
 Energy of photon

where h is Planck’s constant and f is the frequency of the light, which is

equal to the frequency of Planck’s oscillator.
 According to Einstein, the maximum kinetic energy for these liberated
photoelectrons is

where φ called the work function of the metal. The work function, which
represents the minimum energy with which an electron is bound in the
metal.
 A photoelectron is produced only when the electron absorbs a single photon
with energy greater than or equal to the work function. That explains the
cutoff frequency.
 Kinetic energy depends only on the frequency of the light and the value of
the work function.
 Kinetic energy increases with increasing frequency.
 Electrons are emitted almost instantaneously, regardless of intensity,
because the light energy is concentrated in packets rather than spread out in
waves.
 If the frequency is high enough, no time is needed for the electron to
gradually acquire sufficient energy to escape the metal.
 The cutoff wavelength can be derived from photoelectric
effect equation
 Total energy of a single photon
E=hf

 Because a photon always travels at the speed of light, it is truly a

relativistic particle. Thus we must use relativistic formulas for dealing
with its mass, energy, and momentum.

 v=c for a photon, the denominator is zero.

 To avoid having an infinite momentum, we conclude that the photon’s
mass must be zero: m=0.
 This makes sense too because a photon can never be at rest (it always
moves at the speed of light).
 Momentum of a photon
 Compton effect (1923) also supported the photon theory.
 Compton aimed short-wavelength light (actually X-rays) at various
materials, and detected light scattered at various angles. He found that
the scattered light had a slightly longer wavelength than did the incident
light, and therefore a slightly lower frequency indicating a loss of energy.
 What about the classic interference and diffraction experiments?
 Some experiments indicate that light behaves like a wave; others
indicate that it behaves like a stream of particles.
 Physicists finally came to the conclusion that this duality of light must be
accepted as a fact of life.
 In 1924, Louis de Broglie postulated that because photons have wave and
particle characteristics, perhaps all forms of matter have both properties.
 According to de Broglie, electrons, just like light, have a dual particle–wave
nature.
 Energy of a photon is The Davisson–Germer experiment in
1927 confirmed de Broglie’s
hypothesis by showing that electrons
 The momentum of a photon can be expressed as scattering off crystals form a
diffraction pattern.

 De Broglie suggested that all material particles with momentum p should

have a characteristic wavelength.
 The de Broglie wavelength of a particle is

 De Broglie postulated that the frequencies of matter waves obey the Einstein
relationship for photons, so that

particle concepts (mv and E ) and wave concepts (λ and f ).

 A hot gas emits light of certain characteristic wavelengths
that can be used to identify it, much as a fingerprint can
identify a person.
 The model of the atom in the days of
Newton was a tiny, hard,
indestructible sphere.

 J. J. Thomson (1856–1940) suggested

a model of the atom as a volume of
positive charge with electrons
embedded throughout the volume,
much like the seeds in a watermelon.
 In 1911, Ernest Rutherford (1871–1937) and his students Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden
performed a critical experiment showing that Thomson’s model couldn’t be correct.
 In this experiment, a beam of positively charged alpha particles was projected against a thin metal
foil. Most of the alpha particles passed through the foil as if it were empty space, but a few
particles were scattered through large angles, some even traveling backward.
 Rutherford explained these results by assuming the positive charge in an atom was concentrated in
a region called the nucleus that was small relative to the size of the atom. Any electrons belonging
to the atom were visualized as orbiting the nucleus, much as planets orbit the Sun.
1. An atom emits certain discrete characteristic frequencies of
electromagnetic radiation and no others;
2. The electrons in Rutherford’s model undergo a centripetal acceleration.
According to Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetism, centripetally
accelerated charges revolving with frequency f should radiate
electromagnetic waves of the same frequency. As the electron radiates
energy, the radius of its orbit steadily decreases and its frequency of
revolution increases. This process leads to an ever - increasing
frequency of emitted radiation and a rapid collapse of the atom as the
electron spirals into the nucleus.
 Rutherford’s model of the atom gave way to that of Niels Bohr, which
explained the characteristic radiation emitted from atoms. Bohr’s theory,
in turn, was supplanted by quantum mechanics. Both the latter theories
are based on studies of atomic spectra: the special pattern in the
wavelengths of emitted light that is unique for every different element.
Visible spectra. (a) Line spectra produced by emission in the visible range for the elements hydrogen,
mercury, and neon. (b) The absorption spectrum for hydrogen. The dark absorption lines occur at the
same wavelengths as the emission lines for hydrogen shown in (a).
 Thank you…