Blackbody Radiation & Plancks Hypothesis

A blackbody is any object

that absorbs all light incident upon it Shiny & reflective objects are poor blackbodies Recall: good absorbers and also good emitters Ideally we imagine a box with a small hole that very little light (EM radiation) can reflect back out

 Consider heating blackbodies to

various temperatures and recording intensity of radiation at differing frequencies

At both low and high freq. there is

very little radiation The rad. Peaks at an intermediate freq. This distribution holds true regardless of the material

Note: As temp. increases area

under curve increases

This represents total energy

As temp. increases peak moves

to higher frequency

 The temperature

therefore indicates its emitted color and vice versa

We can determine star

temperature (surface) by analyzing its color Red stars are fairly cool, like the bolt shown But White, or BlueWhite stars are very hot Our sun is intermediate

Plancks Quantum Hypothesis

Attempts to explain

blackbody radiation using classical physics failed miserably

At low temps. Prediction &

exp match well At high temps. Classical prediction explodes to infinity Very different from experimental result Referred to as the Ultraviolet Catastrophe

 German physicists Max

Planck diligently tried to solve this issue

He stumbled upon a

mathematical formula that matched the experiment He then needed to derive the physical formula The only way was to assume energy (in the form of EM radiation) way quantized Little packets of energy

Ef
Inserting a constant, h

E=nhf Where n = number of packets and h = plancks constant h = 6.63 x 10-34 J s One of our fundamental constants of nature

This tells us that energy can

only change in quantum jumps, a very tiny amount not experienced everyday

 Planck was not satisfied and

believed (along with other physicists) that it was a purely mathematical solution, not a real physical one It does explain the exp. quite well:
The > f, the > quantum of energy

needed As frequency increased, the amount of energy needed for small jumps increased as well The object only has a certain amount of energy to supply Therefore: radiation drops to zero at high frequency

Photons & the Photoelectric Effect

Planck believed that the

atoms of a blackbody vibrated with discrete frequencies (like standing waves) But, at the time light was considered a wave therefore no connection Einstein took the idea of quanta of energy and applied it to light called photons

 Each photon has energy

based on its frequency E=nhf A beam of light can be thought of as a beam of particles
More intense = more

particles Since each photon have small amounts of energy, there must be tremendous numbers of them

 Einstein applied this model to the photoelectric effect

issue
Light hitting the surface of metals can cause electrons to

be ejected The effect could not be explained using the wave theory of light We can determine the number of e ejected by connecting the apparatus to a simple circuit

 The minimum amount of

Classical physics

energy needed to eject e = work function, W0

Metal dependent Usually a few eV If an e is given energy by

predicts
1.

light that exceeds W0, the additional amount goes into kinetic energy of e Kmax = E W0

2.

light of any frequency should eject e as long as intensity is high enough The K of e should increase with intensity

 These do not agree with

Both of these are explained

experiment:
1.

There is a minimum frequency required the cutoff frequency, f0

using the photon model of light

1.

If f < f0 no e regardless of the intensity

2.

2.

The Kmax of e depends only on the frequency

Increasing intensity about f0 only increases the number of e

Changing intensity only changes the number of photons E is ejected only if the photon has sufficient energy (at least equal to the work function)

The is the cutoff frequency, f0

 If f > f0, the e leaves metal

with some K If f < f0, no e are ejected regardless of intensity

photon Kmax = hf W0

Since energy is that of a

Therefore, Kmax depends

linearly on frequency A plot of Kmax for Na & Au shows different cutoff frequencies, but the same slope, h

Photons & the Photoelectric Effect

Quantization of light Albert

Einstein (1905)
Based on properties of EM waves
Emitted radiation should be

quantized Quantum (packet of light) photon Each photon has energy E=hf Little bundles of light energy

Connection between wave &

particle nature of light

 Einstein used this to explain the photoelectric effect Certain metallic materials are photosensitive Light striking material emits electrons (e) The radiant energy supplies the work necessary to

free the e photoelectrons When photocell is illuminated with monochromatic light, characteristic curves are obtained

 Emission begins the

Since e are bound by

instant (~10-9 s) even with low intensity light Classically, time is required to build up energy Since light can be considered a bundle of energy, E = hf
The e absorb whole

photon or nothing

attractive forces, work must be done Conservation of energy hf = Kmax + where = amount of work (energy) needed to free e Part of energy of photon frees e & the rest is carried away as K

 Least tightly bound will

Does not change energy of

have maximum K
Energy needed = work

function, 0 hf = Kmax + 0 Other e require more energy & the K is less

Increasing light

intensity, increases # of photons thus increasing # of e

individual photons Photon energy depends on frequency Below a certain freq. no e are dislodged When Kmax = 0 the minimum cutoff frequency, f0 Hf0 = Kmax + 0 = 0 + 0 f0 = 0 / h

 Photon has enough

energy to free e, but no extra to give it K Sometimes called threshold freq.

Light below this (no matter how many) will not dislodge e