Chapter 40

Introduction to
Quantum Physics
Need for Quantum Physics
 Problems remained from classical mechanics that
relativity didn’t explain
 Attempts to apply the laws of classical physics to
explain the behavior of matter on the atomic scale
were consistently unsuccessful
 Problems included:
 Blackbody radiation
 The electromagnetic radiation emitted by a heated object

 Photoelectric effect
 Emission of electrons by an illuminated metal
Quantum Mechanics
Revolution
 Between 1900 and 1930, another revolution
took place in physics
 A new theory called quantum mechanics was

successful in explaining the behavior of

particles of microscopic size
 The first explanation using quantum theory

was introduced by Max Planck

 Many other physicists were involved in other
subsequent developments
Blackbody Radiation
 Anobject at any temperature is known to
emit thermal radiation
 Characteristics depend on the temperature and
surface properties
 The thermal radiation consists of a continuous
distribution of wavelengths from all portions of the
em spectrum
Blackbody Radiation, cont.
 At room temperature, the wavelengths of the
thermal radiation are mainly in the infrared region
 As the surface temperature increases, the
wavelength changes
 It will glow red and eventually white
 The basic problem was in understanding the
observed distribution in the radiation emitted by a
black body
 Classical physics didn’t adequately describe the observed
distribution
Blackbody Radiation, final
A black body is an ideal system that absorbs
all radiation incident on it
 The electromagnetic radiation emitted by a

black body is called blackbody radiation

Blackbody Approximation
 A good approximation of a
black body is a small hole
leading to the inside of a
hollow object
 The hole acts as a perfect
absorber
 The nature of the radiation
leaving the cavity through
the hole depends only on
the temperature of the
cavity
Blackbody Experiment Results
 The total power of the emitted radiation
increases with temperature
 Stefan’s law (from Chapter 20):
 = AeT4
 The peak of the wavelength distribution shifts
to shorter wavelengths as the temperature
increases
 Wien’s displacement law
 maxT = 2.898 x 10-3 m.K
Rayleigh-Jeans Law
 Anearly classical attempt to explain
blackbody radiation was the Rayleigh-Jeans
law
2πck BT
I  λ,T  
λ4
 At
long wavelengths, the law matched
experimental results fairly well
Rayleigh-Jeans Law, cont.
 At short wavelengths, there
was a major disagreement
between the Rayleigh-
Jeans law and experiment
 This mismatch became
known as the ultraviolet
catastrophe
 You would have infinite
energy as the wavelength
approaches zero
Max Planck
 1858 – 1847
 German physicist
 Introduced the concept
of “quantum of action”
 In 1918 he was
awarded the Nobel
Prize for the discovery
of the quantized nature
of energy
Planck’s Theory of Blackbody
Radiation
 In 1900 Planck developed a theory of
blackbody radiation that leads to an equation
for the intensity of the radiation
 This equation is in complete agreement with
experimental observations
 He assumed the cavity radiation came from
atomic oscillations in the cavity walls
 Planck made two assumptions about the
nature of the oscillators in the cavity walls
Planck’s Assumption, 1
 The energy of an oscillator can have only
certain discrete values En
 En = nhƒ
 n is a positive integer called the quantum number
 ƒ is the frequency of oscillation
 h is Planck’s constant
 This says the energy is quantized
 Each discrete energy value corresponds to a
different quantum state
Planck’s Assumption, 2
 The oscillators emit or absorb energy when
making a transition from one quantum state
to another
 The entire energy difference between the initial
and final states in the transition is emitted or
absorbed as a single quantum of radiation
 An oscillator emits or absorbs energy only when it
changes quantum states
 The energy carried by the quantum of radiation is
E=hƒ
Planck’s Wavelength
Distribution Function
 Planckgenerated a theoretical expression for
the wavelength distribution
2πhc 2
I  λ,T   5 hc λk T
λ e B
 1
 h = 6.626 x 10-34 J.s
 h is a fundamental constant of nature
Planck’s Wavelength
Distribution Function, cont.
 At long wavelengths, Planck’s equation
reduces to the Rayleigh-Jeans expression
 At short wavelengths, it predicts an

exponential decrease in intensity with

decreasing wavelength
 This is in agreement with experimental results
Photoelectric Effect
 The photoelectric effect occurs when light
incident on certain metallic surfaces causes
electrons to be emitted from those surfaces
 The emitted electrons are called photoelectrons
Photoelectric Effect Apparatus
 When the tube is kept in the
dark, the ammeter reads
zero
 When plate E is illuminated
by light having an
appropriate wavelength, a
current is detected by the
ammeter
 The current arises from
photoelectrons emitted from
the negative plate and
collected at the positive
plate
Photoelectric Effect, Results
 At large values of V, the
current reaches a maximum
value
 All the electrons emitted at
E are collected at C
 The maximum current
increases as the intensity of
the incident light increases
 When V is negative, the
current drops
 When V is equal to or more
negative than Vs, the
current is zero
Photoelectric Effect Feature 1
 Dependence of photoelectron kinetic energy on light
intensity
 Classical Prediction
 Electrons should absorb energy continually from the
electromagnetic waves
 As the light intensity incident on the metal is increased, the
electrons should be ejected with more kinetic energy
 Experimental Result
 The maximum kinetic energy is independent of light
intensity
 The maximum kinetic energy is proportional to the stopping

potential (Vs)
Photoelectric Effect Feature 2
 Time interval between incidence of light and ejection
of photoelectrons
 Classical Prediction
 At low light intensities, a measurable time interval should
pass between the instant the light is turned on and the time
an electron is ejected from the metal
 This time interval is required for the electron to absorb the
incident radiation before it acquires enough energy to
escape from the metal
 Experimental Result
 Electrons are emitted almost instantaneously, even at very
low light intensities
Photoelectric Effect Feature 3
 Dependence of ejection of electrons on light
frequency
 Classical Prediction
 Electrons should be ejected at any frequency as long as the
light intensity is high enough
 Experimental Result
 No electrons are emitted if the incident light falls below

some cutoff frequency, ƒc

 The cutoff frequency is characteristic of the material being
illuminated
 No electrons are ejected below the cutoff frequency
regardless of intensity
Photoelectric Effect Feature 4
 Dependence of photoelectron kinetic energy
on light frequency
 Classical Prediction
 There should be no relationship between the
frequency of the light and the electric kinetic energy
 The kinetic energy should be related to the intensity of
the light
 Experimental Result
 The maximum kinetic energy of the photoelectrons
increases with increasing light frequency
Photoelectric Effect Features,
Summary
 The experimental results contradict all four
classical predictions
 Einstein extended Planck’s concept of
quantization to electromagnetic waves
 All electromagnetic radiation can be
considered a stream of quanta, now called
photons
 A photon of incident light gives all its energy
hƒ to a single electron in the metal
Photoelectric Effect, Work
Function
 Electrons
ejected from the surface of the
metal and not making collisions with other
metal atoms before escaping possess the
maximum kinetic energy Kmax
K
max = hƒ – φ
 φ is called the work function
 The work function represents the minimum
energy with which an electron is bound in the
metal
Photon Model Explanation of
the Photoelectric Effect
 Dependence of photoelectron kinetic energy
on light intensity
 Kmax is independent of light intensity
 K depends on the light frequency and the work
function
 Time interval between incidence of light and
ejection of the photoelectron
 Each photon can have enough energy to eject an
electron immediately
Photon Model Explanation of
the Photoelectric Effect, cont.
 Dependence of ejection of electrons on light
frequency
 There is a failure to observe photoelectric effect
below a certain cutoff frequency, which indicates
the photon must have more energy than the work
function in order to eject an electron
 Without enough energy, an electron cannot be
ejected, regardless of the light intensity
Photon Model Explanation of
the Photoelectric Effect, final
 Dependence of photoelectron kinetic energy
on light frequency
 Since Kmax = hƒ – φ
 As the frequency increases, the kinetic energy will
increase
 Once the energy of the work function is exceeded
 There is a linear relationship between the kinetic
energy and the frequency
Cutoff Frequency
 The lines show the
linear relationship
between K and ƒ
 The slope of each line
is h
 The x-intercept is the
cutoff frequency
 This is the frequency
below which no
photoelectrons are
emitted
Cutoff Frequency and
Wavelength
 The cutoff frequency is related to the work
function through ƒc = φ / h
 The cutoff frequency corresponds to a cutoff
wavelength
c hc
λc  
ƒc φ
 Wavelengths greater than c incident on a
material having a work function φ do not
result in the emission of photoelectrons
Arthur Holly Compton
 1892 – 1962
 American physicist
 Director of the lab at
the University of
Chicago
 Discovered the
Compton Effect
 Shared the Nobel Prize
in 1927
The Compton Effect,
Introduction
 Compton and Debye extended with Einstein’s
idea of photon momentum
 The two groups of experimenters

accumulated evidence of the inadequacy of

the classical wave theory
 The classical wave theory of light failed to

explain the scattering of x-rays from electrons

Compton Effect, Classical
Predictions
 According to the classical theory, em waves
incident on electrons should:
 Have radiation pressure that should cause the
electrons to accelerate
 Set the electrons oscillating
 There should be a range of frequencies for the
scattered electrons
Compton Effect, Observations
 Compton’s experiments
showed that, at any
given angle, only one
frequency of radiation
is observed
Compton Effect, Explanation
 The results could be explained by treating the
photons as point-like particles having energy hƒ
 Assume the energy and momentum of the

isolated system of the colliding photon-electron

are conserved
 Compton adopted a particle model for

something that was well known as a wave

 This scattering phenomena is known as the

Compton effect
Compton Shift Equation
 The graphs show the
scattered x-ray for
various angles
 The shifted peak, λ’ is
caused by the scattering
of free electrons

h
λ'  λo  1  cos θ 
mecthe
 This is called

Compton shift equation

Compton Wavelength
 Thefactor h/mec in the equation is called the
Compton wavelength and is
h
λC  0.002 43 nm
me c
 The unshifted wavelength, λo, is caused by x-
rays scattered from the electrons that are
tightly bound to the target atoms
Photons and Waves Revisited
 Some experiments are best explained by the
photon model
 Some are best explained by the wave model

 We must accept both models and admit that

the true nature of light is not describable in

terms of any single classical model
 Also, the particle model and the wave model

of light complement each other

Louis de Broglie
 1892 – 1987
 French physicist
 Originally studied
history
 Was awarded the
Nobel Prize in 1929 for
his prediction of the
wave nature of
electrons
Wave Properties of Particles
 Louisde Broglie postulated that because
photons have both wave and particle
characteristics, perhaps all forms of matter
have both properties
 The de Broglie wavelength of a particle is

h h
λ 
p mu
Frequency of a Particle
 In an analogy with photons, de Broglie
postulated that a particle would also have a
frequency associated with it
E
ƒ
h
 These equations present the dual nature of
matter
 Particle nature, p and E
 Wave nature, λ and ƒ
Practice Question One

Calculate the energy

and momentum of a
photon of wavelength
700 nm.
Practice Question Two
A 0.00160-nm photon scatters from a free
electron. For what (photon) scattering angle
does the recoiling electron have kinetic energy
equal to the energy of the scattered photon?
Werner Heisenberg
 1901 – 1976
 German physicist
 Developed matrix
mechanics
 Many contributions include:
 Uncertainty principle
 Rec’d Nobel Prize in 1932

 Prediction of two forms of

molecular hydrogen
 Theoretical models of the
nucleus
The Uncertainty Principle,
Introduction
 In classical mechanics, it is possible, in
principle, to make measurements with
arbitrarily small uncertainty
 Quantum theory predicts that it is

fundamentally impossible to make

simultaneous measurements of a particle’s
position and momentum with infinite accuracy
Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle, Statement
 The Heisenberg uncertainty principle
states: if a measurement of the position of a
particle is made with uncertainty x and a
simultaneous measurement of its x
component of momentum is made with
uncertainty px, the product of the two
uncertainties can never be smaller than

x p x 
2
Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle, Explained
 Itis physically impossible to measure
simultaneously the exact position and exact
momentum of a particle
 The inescapable uncertainties do not arise

from imperfections in practical measuring

instruments
 The uncertainties arise from the quantum

structure of matter
Heisenberg Uncertainty
Principle, Another Form
 Anotherform of the uncertainty principle can
be expressed in terms of energy and time

E t 
2
 Thissuggests that energy conservation can
appear to be violated by an amount E as
long as it is only for a short time interval t
Questions
 In a Compton scattering experiment, an x-ray
photon scatters through an angle of 17.4°
from a free electron that is initially at rest. The
electron recoils with a speed of 2 180 km/s.
Calculate the wavelength of the incident
photon.
Questions
X-rays having an energy of 300 keV undergo
Compton scattering from a target. The
scattered rays are detected at 37.0° relative to
the incident rays. Find
(a)the Compton shift at this angle,

(b)the energy of the scattered x-ray, and

(c)the energy of the recoiling electron.