25.

2 PHOTOELECTRIC
EMISSION OF ELECTRONS
Uttam Shrestha

History
Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics
not for his work on relativity, but for
explaining the photoelectric effect. He
proposed that light is made up of packets
of energy called photons. Photons have
no mass, but they have momentum and
they have an energy given by:
Energy of a photon : E = hf
Uttam Shrestha

Photo electric effect

The photoelectric effect works like this. If you
shine light of high enough energy on to a
metal, electrons will be emitted from the
metal. Light below a certain threshold
frequency, no matter how intense, will not
cause any electrons to be emitted. Light
above the threshold frequency, even if it's
not very intense, will always cause electrons
to be emitted.
Uttam Shrestha

Threshold frequency
There is a certain amount of energy required to
eject out an electron from metal surface. That
amount of energy(work function),if it is at the
least(minimum) amount which can bump out
an electron, here the frequency of that energy
is threshold frequency.
The minimum frequency of the photon that is
required to bump out an electron from the
electron sea of the metal surface is called
threshold frequency.
Uttam Shrestha

Photon
Photon is a particle representing a
quantum(packet) of light or other
electromagnetic radiation.
Thephoton energyis theenergycarried by a
singlephotonwith a certainelectromagnetic
wavelengthandfrequency.
It is represented by theelectron volt(eV) and
thejoule
Uttam Shrestha

Energy of a Photon

E hf

OR

Where:
h is Plancks constant = 6.63 10-34 Js
f is the frequency of the electromagnetic wave

Is the wavelength of the electromagnetic wave

8
-1
c is the speed of light in vacuum
=
3.00

10
ms
Uttam Shrestha

hc

Work Function
In order to be ejected, the electron must
absorb a certain amount of energy .
We call this energy the work function of the
material and it can be defined as the minimum
energy necessary to remove an electron from
the surface of the emitter material.
Different metals have different work functions.
This means it is easier to remove electrons
from some metals than others.
Uttam Shrestha

Relation of emission with frequency and

intensity

Metal Foil

Uttam Shrestha

Metal Foil

Uttam Shrestha

Uttam Shrestha

 As blue light
strikes the metal
foil, the foil emits
electrons.
Blue light has
more frequency
than red light as
it has shorter
wavelength than
red light.
Uttam Shrestha

Uttam Shrestha

 No matter how many photons strike

the metal, if none of them has
sufficient energy to eject an electron
from a metal atom, you won't get a
current.

Uttam Shrestha

Uttam Shrestha

 Still not working.

What happens with brighter blue
light?

Uttam Shrestha

Uttam Shrestha

Photoelectric Effect
More blue light means more
electrons emitted, but that doesnt
work with red.
If the energy the taken up by the
electron is sufficient to allow it to be
released from the metal atom, you
will get a current.
Uttam Shrestha

Uttam Shrestha

Increasing the light intensity simply

increases the emission of
photoelectrons and the
photocurrent.

Uttam Shrestha

Think about hitting

a ball into outer
space.
If you don't hit it
hard enough, it will
just come back
down. No matter
how many times
you hit it.

Uttam Shrestha

THANK YOU
Uttam Shrestha