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Oxford University Press eBooks

Electromagnetic waves and photons

P. Anthony Cox

Published Jan 25, 1996• 1 citation
Publisher

Abstract

This chapter discusses electromagnetic waves and photons. It begins by reviewing some basic ideas on the properties of waves, introducing the wave properties of radiation. There are several reasons for starting with a discussion of electromagnetic radiation. Historically, it was in this area that the quantum theory first developed. The applications of the light-quantum hypothesis, as it was first called, also provide key pieces of evidence for the quantization of energy in atoms and molecules. The chapter then looks at the evidence for the wave nature of light and of X-rays, before putting these two forms of radiation into the context of electromagnetic radiation in general. It also considers Albert Einstein's analysis of the photoelectric effect. Finally, the chapter assesses the statistical nature of photons.

DOI
10.1093/hesc/9780198559160.003.0001

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This chapter discusses electromagnetic waves and photons. It begins by reviewing some basic ideas on the properties of waves, introducing the wave properties of radiation. There are several reasons for starting with a discussion of electromagnetic radiation. Historically, it was in this area that the quantum theory first developed. The applications of the light-quantum hypothesis, as it was first called, also provide key pieces of evidence for the quantization of energy in atoms and molecules. The chapter then looks at the evidence for the wave nature of light and of X-rays, before putting these two forms of radiation into the context of electromagnetic radiation in general. It also considers Albert Einstein's analysis of the photoelectric effect. Finally, the chapter assesses the statistical nature of photons.
This chapter is centered upon the concepts of the quantum nature of light. It begins with a discussion of the photoelectric effect, which provides historical background and a vehicle to discuss the properties of photons. In addition, the photoelectric effect provides the starting point for the explanation of the production of X-rays. After a study of the X-ray spectrum, Compton scattering is introduced as another example of the photon nature of light. As an appendix, the second synthesis opportunity of the volume is presented about lasers. These quantum-electronic devices provide an opportunity to synthesize almost all the topics covered in the volume from the quantum nature of light and matter, to optics, electronics, and thermodynamics. This section is optional, but provides a way to bring the entire text together in the explanation of well-known devices.
Abstract The question of fluctuations in electromagnetic radiation played an important part during the first period of the development of quantum theory. After having introduced (Einstein 1905) the conception of light quanta or photons in order to explain the observed phenomena of the photoelectric effect, Einstein (1909) considered the consequences of this idea for other properties of the radiation. Planck’s formula for the energy density of radiation implies, by arguments of general thermodynamics and statistics, the following expression for the mean square fluctuation of the energy contained in a volume v in terms of the mean energy Ēv.
This chapter provides a brief overview of quantum mechanics and light. It begins with a discussion on the purpose and practice of spectroscopy, which involves the investigation of the interaction of light with matter. It then breaks down the nature of electromagnetic radiation, expounding on the classical theory of light before turning to photons and how they make up light. Next, the chapter elaborates on the properties of lasers and how these same remarkable properties are achieved largely from the process of stimulated emission. Afterward, the chapter presents the wave mechanical description of an atom, and considers the Schrödinger equation and the Hamiltonian operator. Lastly, angular momentum is explored.
This chapter examines the wave properties of matter. Early attempts to extend the quantum ideas to the theory of matter had some limited success, but did not progress very far. Another radical idea was required before a satisfactory theory could be developed. As light has both wave and particle properties, perhaps the same is true of 'ordinary' particles such as electrons. This bold suggestion was made by Louis de Broglie in 1923, and within a few years it had been confirmed experimentally. De Broglie's wave hypothesis formed the basis for Schrödinger's equation, which was found capable of predicting the allowed energy levels in atoms and molecules, and must be regarded as one of the most important mathematical equations of modern science. Before discussing these ideas, the chapter begins by considering the classical mechanics of particles, reviewing some simple concepts that form an essential background to the quantum theory of matter.
Light occupies a special position in our attempts to understand nature both classically and quantum mechanically. We recall that Newton, who made so many fundamental contributions to optics, championed a particle description of light and was not favorably disposed to the wave picture of light. However, the beautiful unification of electricity and magnetism achieved by Maxwell clearly showed that light was properly understood as the wave-like undulations of electric and magnetic fields propagating through space. The central role of light in marking the frontiers of physics continues on into the twentieth century with the ultraviolet catastrophe associated with black-body radiation on the one hand and the photoelectric effect on the other. Indeed, it was here that the era of quantum mechanics was initiated with Planck's introduction of the quantum of action that was necessary to explain the black-body radiation spectrum. The extension of these ideas led Einstein to explain the photoelectric effect, and to introduce the photon concept. It was, however, left to Dirac to combine the wave-and particlelike aspects of light so that the radiation field is capable of explaining all interference phenomena and yet shows the excitation of a specific atom located along a wave front absorbing one photon of energy. In this chapter, following Dirac, we associate each mode of the radiation field with a quantized simple harmonic oscillator, this is the essence of the quantum theory of radiation.
This chapter discusses some of the experiments that provided evidence that light, which we have recognized as a wave phenomenon, has properties that we normally associate with particles. It explains these phenomena and to understand the physical processes involved, some kind of a corpuscular theory of light is required. The chapter discusses briefly how the idea of the existence of discrete structures has been innovated in physics. The first idea of the existence of discrete structures referred to physics of materials and their electric properties. In a different area of physics, radiation spectroscopy experiments show that light emitted by hot solid or liquid exhibits a continuous spectrum. The chapter focuses on that the results of the experiments on photoelectric effect are in contradiction to classical wave theory. The wave theory of light leads one to anticipate that a long-wavelength light incident on a surface could cause enough energy to be absorbed for an electron to be released.