Thermal Radiation
• Classical Theory
• Quantum Theory
Thermal Radiation
Thermal radiation is the electromagnetic radiation emitted by all
objects because of their temperature. At room temperature the
thermal radiation is mostly in the infrared region of the spectrum,
where our eyes are not sensitive. As we heat objects to higher
temperatures, they may emit visible light.
Classical Theory of Thermal Radiation
Classical theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics can
tell us about the dependence of I on λ. The derivation involves first
computing the amount of radiation (number of waves) at each
wavelength and then finding the contribution of each wave to the total
energy in the box.
1. The box is filled with electromagnetic standing waves. If the walls of
the box are metal, radiation is reflected back and forth with a node
of the electric field at each wall (the electric field must vanish inside
a conductor). This is the same condition that applies to other
standing waves, like those on a stretched string or a column of air in
an organ pipe.
2. The number of standing waves with wavelengths between λ and λ +
dλ in Eq. 3.31
3. Each individual wave contributes an average energy of kT to the
radiation in the box. In this case we are interested in the statistics of
the oscillating atoms in the walls of the cavity, which are responsible
for setting up the standing electromagnetic waves in the cavity. For a
one-dimensional oscillator, the energies are distributed according to
the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution:
The average energy per oscillator is then found in the same way as the
average energy of a gas molecule
which does indeed work out to Eav= kT.
Putting all these ingredients together, we can find the energy density of
radiation in the wavelength interval dλ inside the cavity: energy density
= (number of standing waves per unit volume) × (average energy per
standing wave) or
The corresponding intensity per unit wavelength interval dλ is
This result is known as the Rayleigh-Jeans formula; based firmly on the
classical theories of electromagnetism and thermodynamics, it represents our best
attempt to apply classical physics to understanding the problem of blackbody
radiation.
The failure of the Rayleigh-Jeans formula at short wavelengths is known as
the ultraviolet catastrophe and represents a serious problem for classical physics,
because the theories of thermodynamics and electromagnetism on which the
Rayleigh-Jeans formula is based have been carefully tested in many other
circumstances and found to give extremely good agreement with experiment. It is
apparent in the case of blackbody radiation that the classical theories do not work,
and that a new kind of physical theory is needed.
Quantum Theory of Thermal Radiation
The new physics that gave the correct interpretation of thermal radiation
was proposed by the German physicist Max Planck. He did this by a bold
assumption that formed the cornerstone of a new physical theory, quantum
physics. Associated with this theory is a new version of mechanics, known as wave
mechanics or quantum mechanics. In Planck’s theory, each oscillator can emit or
absorb energy only in quantities that are integer multiples of a certain basic
quantity of energy ,
where n is the number of quanta. Furthermore, the energy of each of the quanta is
determined by the frequency
where h is the constant of proportionality, now known as Planck’s constant. From
the mathematical standpoint, the difference between Planck’s calculation and the
classical calculation using Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics is that the energy of an
oscillator at a certain wavelength or frequency is no longer a continuous variable.
In fact, deducing Stefan’s law from Planck’s formula results in a relationship
between the Stefan-Boltzmann constant and Planck’s constant:
By determining the value of the Stefan-Boltzmann constant from the intensity data
available in 1900, Planck was able to determine a value of the constant h :
Planck’s formula still finds important applications today in the measurement of
temperature. By measuring the intensity of radiation emitted by an object at a
particular wavelength.
