Photons: Light waves as particles

SEd 314: Recent Advances in Physics

Prepared by: Analyn I. Diola, M.Sc.

Submitted to: Frederick G. Tadifa, Ph.D.

Topics
 Photoelectric effect
 X-ray Production
 Compton Scattering and pair production
 Wave particles duality, probability and
uncertainty
Photoelectric Effect
 When light shines on a metal, electrons can
be ejected from the surface of the metal in a
phenomenon known as the photoelectric
effect. This process is also often referred to
as photoemission, and the electrons that are
ejected from the metal are
called photoelectrons.
 In terms of their behavior and their properties,
photoelectrons are no different from other
electrons. The prefix, photo-, simply tells us
that the electrons have been ejected from a
metal surface by incident light.
Photoelectric Effect

In the photoelectric effect, light waves (red wavy lines) hitting

a metal surface cause electrons to be ejected from the
metal. Image from Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Photoelectric Effect
 Photoelectric Effect
Based on the classical description of light as a wave, they
made the following predictions:

• The kinetic energy of emitted photoelectrons should

increase with the light amplitude.
• The rate of electron emission, which is proportional to
the measured electric current, should increase as the
light frequency is increased.

These results were completely at odds with the predictions

based on the classical description of light as a wave! In
order to explain what was happening, it turned out that an
entirely new model of light was needed. That model was
developed by Albert Einstein, who proposed that light
sometimes behaved as particles of electromagnetic
energy which we now call photons.
 Photoelectric Effect
The energy of a photon could be calculated using Planck's
equation:

E photon=hv

Where E photon is the energy of a photon in joules (J), h is

Planck’s constant (6.626 X 10-34 J.s), and v is the frequency
of the light in Hz)

According to Planck's equation, the energy of a photon is

proportional to the frequency of the light, v. The amplitude
of the light is then proportional to the number of photons
with a given frequency.
Photoelectric Effect
Photoelectric Effect
Photoelectric Effect
Photoelectric Effect
 Photoelectric Effect
Summary

• Based on the wave model of light, physicists

predicted that increasing light amplitude would
increase the kinetic energy of emitted
photoelectrons, while increasing the frequency
would increase measured current.

• Experiments showed that increasing the light

frequency increased the kinetic energy of the
photoelectrons, and increasing the light
amplitude increased the current.
 Photoelectric Effect
Summary

• Based on these findings, Einstein proposed that

light behaved like a stream of photons with an
energy of E photon=hv

• The work function, Φ, is the minimum amount of

energy required to induce photoemission of
electrons from a specific metal surface.

• The energy of the incident photon must be

equal to the sum of the work function and the
kinetic energy of a photoelectron:
Ephoton=KEelectron+Φ
 Photoelectric Effect
Summary

•The photoelectric effect occurs when

photoelectrons are ejected from a metal surface
in response to monochromatic radiation incident
on the surface. It has three characteristics: (1) it is
instantaneous, (2) it occurs only when the
radiation is above a cut-off frequency, and
(3)kinetic energies of photoelectrons at the
surface do not depend of the intensity of
radiation. The photoelectric effect cannot be
explained by classical theory.
 Photoelectric Effect
Summary

• We can explain the photoelectric effect by

assuming that radiation consists of photons
(particles of light). Each photon carries a quantum
of energy. The energy of a photon depends only
on its frequency, which is the frequency of the
radiation. At the surface, the entire energy of a
photon is transferred to one photoelectron.
 Photoelectric Effect
Summary

• The maximum kinetic energy of a photoelectron

at the metal surface is the difference between
the energy of the incident photon and the work
function of the metal. The work function is the
binding energy of electrons to the metal surface.
Each metal has its own characteristic work
function.
X-ray Production
 X-rays are produced due to sudden
deceleration of fast moving electrons when
they collide and interact with the target
anode. In this process of deceleration, more
than 99% of the electron energy is converted
into heat and less than 1% of energy is
converted into X-rays.
X-ray Production.
Definitions
 Anode
It is the positive terminal of the tube. It is made of
tungsten disc in ordinary diagnostic X-ray tube
and molybdenum in mammography X-ray tube.
Fast-moving electrons interact with the anode in
following ways:
 interaction with K-shell electron: causes the
production of characteristic radiation
 interaction with nucleus:
causes bremsstrahlung radiation
 interaction with outer shell electrons: causes line
spectrum
X-ray Production
Definitions
 Cathode
The cathode is the negative terminal of the X-ray
tube. It is tungsten filament and when current is
flown through it, the filament gets heated and
start emitting its surface electrons by the process
called thermionic emission.
 Kilovoltage
High voltage is applied between cathode and
anode. The high voltage of kilovolt range (1000
volts) causes electrons to move towards the
positive terminal of the tube at a velocity of half
the velocity of light.
X-ray Production
X-ray Production
X-ray Production
X-ray Production
X-ray Production
 X-rays are produced by interaction of
accelerated electrons with tungsten nuclei
within the tube anode
 Two types of radiation are generated:
 characteristic radiation
 bremsstrahlung (braking) radiation
 Changing the X-ray machine current or
voltage settings alters the properties of the X-
ray beam
Compton Scattering and Pair
Production
 A Compton interaction is one in which only a
portion of the energy is absorbed and a
photon is produced with reduced energy.
This photon leaves the site of the interaction
in a direction different from that of the
original photon.
 Because of the change in photon direction,
this type of interaction is classified as a
scattering process. In effect, a portion of the
incident radiation "bounces off' or is
scattered by the material.
Compton Scattering and Pair
Production
 This is significant in some situations because the
material within the primary x-ray beam becomes
a secondary radiation source. The most
significant object producing scattered radiation
in an x-ray procedure is the patient's body. The
portion of the patient's body that is within the
primary x-ray beam becomes the actual source
of scattered radiation.
 This has two undesirable consequences. The
scattered radiation that continues in the forward
direction and reaches the image receptor
decreases the quality (contrast) of the image;
the radiation that is scattered from the patient is
the predominant source of radiation exposure to
the personnel conducting the examination.
Compton Scattering and Pair
Production
 There are actually two types of interactions
that produce scattered radiation.
 One type, referred to by a variety of names,
including coherent, Thompson, Rayleigh,
classical, and
 Elastic, is a pure scattering interaction and
deposits no energy in the material. Although
this type of interaction is possible at low photon
energies, it is generally not significant in most
diagnostic procedures.
Compton Scattering and Pair
Production
 Pair production is a photon-matter interaction
that is not encountered in diagnostic procedures
because it can occur only with photons with
energies in excess of 1.02 MeV.
 In a pair-production interaction, the photon
interacts with the nucleus in such a manner that
its energy is converted into matter. The
interaction produces a pair of particles, an
electron and a positively charged positron. These
two particles have the same mass, each
equivalent to a rest mass energy of 0.51 MeV.
The Campton Effect
 In the Compton effect, X-rays scattered off
some materials have different wavelengths
than the wavelength of the incident X-rays.
This phenomenon does not have a classical
explanation.
 The Compton effect is explained by assuming
that radiation consists of photons that collide
with weakly bound electrons in the target
material. Both electron and photon are
treated as relativistic particles. Conservation
laws of the total energy and of momentum
are obeyed in collisions.
The Campton Effect
 Treating the photon as a particle with
momentum that can be transferred to an
electron leads to a theoretical Compton shift
that agrees with the wavelength shift
measured in the experiment. This provides
evidence that radiation consists of photons.
 Compton scattering is an inelastic scattering,
in which scattered radiation has a longer
wavelength than that of incident radiation.
Wave particle duality
 The wave-like nature of light explains most of its
properties:
 reflection/refraction
 diffraction/interference
 Doppler effect
 But, the results from stellar spectroscopy (emission
and absorption spectra) can only be explained if
light has a particle nature as shown by Bohr's
atom and the photon description of light.
 This dualism to the nature of light is best
demonstrated by the photoelectric effect, where
a weak UV light produces a current flow (releases
electrons) but a strong red light does not release
electrons no matter how intense the red light.
Wave particle duality
Wave particle duality
 Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by
assuming that light exists in a particle-like state,
packets of energy (quanta) called photons.
There is no current flow for red light because the
packets of energy carried by each individual red
photons are too weak to knock the electrons off
the atoms no matter how many red photons you
beamed onto the cathode. But the individual UV
photons were each strong enough to release the
electron and cause a current flow.
 It is one of the strange, but fundamental,
concepts in modern physics that light has both a
wave and particle state (but not at the same
time), called wave-particle dualism.
Wave particle duality
 Wave-particle duality exists in nature: Under
some experimental conditions, a particle acts as
a particle; under other experimental conditions,
a particle acts as a wave. Conversely, under
some physical circumstances, electromagnetic
radiation acts as a wave, and under other
physical circumstances, radiation acts as a
beam of photons.
 Modern-era double-slit experiments with
electrons demonstrated conclusively that
electron-diffraction images are formed because
of the wave nature of electrons.
 The wave-particle dual nature of particles and of
radiation has no classical explanation.
Wave particle duality
 Quantum theory takes the wave property to be
the fundamental property of all particles. A
particle is seen as a moving wave packet. The
wave nature of particles imposes a limitation on
the simultaneous measurement of the particle’s
position and momentum. Heisenberg’s
uncertainty principle sets the limits on precision in
such simultaneous measurements.
 Wave-particle duality is exploited in many
devices, such as charge-couple devices(used in
digital cameras)or in the electron microscopy of
the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the
transmission electron microscope (TEM).
Wave particle probability
 In 1926, Erwin Schrödinger invented a wave
equation that could be applied to any
physical system. The equation has more than
one solution, and each solution to the
Schrödinger equation is a probability wave
that describes one of the possible behaviors
of that system. (The technical name for one
of these solutions is a quantum state.
Quantum state = matter wave = probability
wave; they all mean the same thing.)
Wave particle probability
 For example, each wave solution to the Schrödinger
equation for the hydrogen atom describes one of the
allowed electron orbits of the hydrogen atom. The energy
and radius of each electron orbit agree with those
calculated by Niels Bohr in 1913, but without using Bohr's
rule. (In fact, in addition to Bohr's rule being "not too
obvious," it is not correct! Bohr was lucky because the way
in which his rule was wrong did not affect his values of the
orbital energies and radii.) The figures on p 213/296
of Seven Ideas That Shook the Universe (1st/2nd ed) show a
few of the probability wave solutions (quantum states) for
the electron in the hydrogen atom. The electron will
actually be found in only one of the possible quantum
states. For each quantum state, you can calculate where
the electron is most likely to be found. In these figures, the
electron is more likely to be found where the shading is
darker. In a chemistry class, you may have heard these
quantum states referred to as "orbitals" or "shells."
Wave particle probability
 In 1927, Paul Adrian Maurice Dirac combined
the Schrödinger equation with Albert Einstein's
theory of relativity to get a new equation. Like
the solutions to the Schrödinger equation, the
solutions to the Dirac equation are probability
waves, but Dirac's waves incorporate relativity
and are in better agreement with how nature
behaves. For example, when applied to
hydrogen and other atoms, the Dirac equation
provides a more complete description and results
in a complete understanding of the periodic
table of the elements used by chemists.
Wave particle probability
 When he applied his equation to a free electron (an
electron not attached to an atom), Dirac saw that the
solutions predicted the existence of antielectrons (also
called positrons). A positron has the same mass as an
electron, but it has a positive electric charge instead of a
negative charge. Dirac's prediction was right; positrons
were observed experimentally in 1932. We now know that
every type of particle has a corresponding antiparticle with
the opposite electric charge. When a particle and its
antiparticle meet, they completely annihilate each other.
They materially cancel each other out and vanish from
existence. Their mass is converted into light according to E
= mc2, and we see two photons flee the scene where the
two particles mutually annihilated. This is called matter-
antimatter annihilation.
Wave particle probability
 You may wonder what sort of container you
could keep a collection of positrons in. The
container couldn't be made of matter, since
the positrons would annihilate with the
electrons in the atoms of the container.
Physicists use magnetic fields to confine
positrons, a sort of magnetic bottle that
keeps the positrons from coming into contact
with normal matter.
Wave particle uncertainty
 The uncertainty principle, developed by W.
Heisenberg, is a statement of the effects of
wave-particle duality on the properties of
subatomic objects.
 In its purest form, the uncertainty principle
states that accurate knowledge
of complementarity pairs is impossible. For
example, you can measure the location of
an electron, but not its momentum (energy)
at the same time.
Wave particle uncertainty
 Wave particle uncertainty

Mathematically we describe the uncertainty

principle as the following, where `x' is position
and `p' is momentum:

The uncertainty principle states that there is

a built-in uncertainty, indeterminacy,
unpredictability to Nature.
References
 https://www.khanacademy.org/science/phy
sics/quantum-
physics/photons/a/photoelectric-effect
 http://www.radiologymasterclass.co.uk/tutori
als/physics/x-
ray_physics_production#top_1st_img
 http://www.sprawls.org/ppmi2/INTERACT/#C
ompton
1. For the same monchromatic light
source, would the photoelectric
occur for all metals?

No
2. Is the photoelectric a consequence of the wave
character of radiation or it is a consequence of the
particle character of radiation?

Particle
Character
 3. Is it possible in the Compton expirement to observe
scattered X-rays that have a shorter wavelengths than
the incident X-ray radiation?

No
4. At what scattering angel is the wavelenght shift in
the Compton effect equal to the Compton
wavelenght?

Right Angle
 5. Does the Heisenberg uncertainty principle allow a
particle to be at rest in a designated region in space?

Yes
 6. Do the photons of red light produce better
resolution in a microscope than blue light photons?

Yes
7. A photon has energy 20keV. What are its frequency
and wavelenght?

4.835×1018 Hz;
0.620 Å
8. The negative terminal of the X-ray tube is called.

Cathode
9. The positive terminal of the X-ray tube is called.

Anode
10. During the photoemmision process, the electrons
that are ejected from the metal are called

Photoelectrons