Sections
Section Summary
Section Summary
- A blackbody will radiate energy across all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.
- Radiation of a blackbody will peak at a particular wavelength, dependent on the temperature of the blackbody.
- Analysis of blackbody radiation led to the field of quantum mechanics, which states that radiated energy can only exist in discrete quantum states.
- The photoelectric effect is the process in which EM radiation ejects electrons from a material.
- Einstein proposed photons to be quanta of EM radiation having energy where f is the frequency of the radiation.
- All EM radiation is composed of photons. As Einstein explained, all characteristics of the photoelectric effect are due to the interaction of individual photons with individual electrons.
- The maximum kinetic energy KEe of ejected electrons (photoelectrons) is given by where hf is the photon energy and BE is the binding energy (or work function) of the electron in the particular material.
- Compton scattering provided evidence that photon-electron interactions abide by the principles of conservation of momentum and conservation of energy.
- The momentum of individual photons, quantified by , can be used to explain observations of comets and may lead to future space technologies.
- Electromagnetic waves and matter have both wave-like and particle-like properties. This phenomenon is defined as particle-wave duality.