Late in the 19h century a series of experiments revealed that electrons are emitted from a

metal surface when light of sufficiently high frequency falls upon it. The phenomena is
known as the photoelectric effect. Fig. 1 illustrates the type of apparatus that was employed
in some of these experiments. Fig. 1: Experimental observation of the Let us consider light
falling on a potassium surface in an apparatus like that of fig. 1. A detectable photoelectric
current will result when 10° w/m of electromagnetic energy is absorbed by the surface,
Planck found that the quanta associated with a particular frequency of light must all have
the same energy and that this energy E is directly proportional to v. That is E = hv where h,
today known as Planck's constant, has the value While he had to assume that
electromagnetic energy radiated by an object emerges intermittently, Planck did not doubt
that it propagates through space as continuous electromagnetic waves: Einstein proposed
that light not only is emitted a quantum at a time, but it also propagates as individual
quanta. In terms of this hypothesis the photoelectric effect can be readily explained

There must be a minimum energy required by an electron in order to escape from a metal
surface. The energy that the electron has to overcome is called the work function (W).
Therefore, a photon of wavelength greater than a critical (Threshold) value (, or A)
determined by the work function will not give to emission of electrons from the surface. We
can define accordingly the critical wavelength by: Any photon having a wavelength greater
than 2. will not enhance the emission. However, if the wavelength of the ineident photons is
smaller than A Then the additional energy will be converted to kinetic energy of the emitted
electrons. Hence we can write : If the potential (V) in fig. 1 is increased, the emitted
electrons will slow and their kinetic energy will be decreased. At a critical potential (V.). Even
the most energetic electrons (E-KEmax) will not have enough kinetic energy to reach the
anode. Their energy in this case is just sufficient to balance the work function V; is called the
stopping potential and is given by: combining equations 2 and 3 we get : The We will use the
above equation to determine Planck's quantum of action (Planck's constant), the work
.function of Potassium and the corresponding threshold wavelength