Experiment No.

3
To determine Planck’s constant using light emitting
diode’s (LED’s)

N. Jain
October 16, 2021

1
Aim:
To determine Planck’s constant using light emitting diode’s (LED’s)

Apparatus:
Planck’s Constant kit and LED’s.

Theory:
Planck’s constant (h), a physical constant was introduced by German physicist named Max Planck in 1900.
The Planck constant tells us how the energy of individual photons relates to the wavelength of their radiation.
The relation between energy and frequency is called Planck equation as:

E = hc/λ (1)

Where E is the energy of a single photon (in joules), h is the Planck constant, c is the speed of light in a vacuum,
and λ is the radiation’s wavelength.

An LED is a two terminal semiconductor light source. In the unbiased condition a potential barrier is de-
veloped across the p-n junction of the LED. When we connect the LED to an external voltage in the forward
biased direction, the height of potential barrier across the p-n junction is reduced. At a particular voltage the
height of potential barrier becomes very low and the LED starts glowing, i.e., in the forward biased condition
electrons crossing the junction are excited, and when they return to their normal state, energy is emitted. This
particular voltage is called the knee voltage or the threshold voltage. Once the knee voltage is reached, the
current may increase but the voltage does not change.

E = eV (2)
Equating (1) and (2), we get
eV = hc/λ (3)
The knee voltage V can be measured for LED’s with different values of λ (wavelength of light).
hc 1
v= (4)
e λ
Now from equation (4), we see that the slope s of a graph of V on the vertical axis vs. 1/λ on the horizontal
axis is
hc
s= (5)
e
To determine Planck’s constant h, we take the slope s from our graph and calculate
es
h= (6)
c
using the known value
e cs
= 5.33e−28 (7)
c m
Alternatively, we can write equation (3) as
e
h= λV (8)
c
This equation is used to determine Planck’s constant.

2
Circuit Diagram:

Procedure
1. Make the connection in the kit as shown in the figure 1.
2. Take the current measurement of each LED by varying the voltage as given in the table.
3. Plot the curve on the graph paper between Voltage on X axis and current on Y axis.

4. Take voltages corresponding to a current by draw the line parallel to Y-axis and note down values of
voltages corresponding to different LED’s.
5. The intercept is the point at which the voltage equals to the barrier potential. Put this value in table 2.
6. Now plot a graph between voltage V and 1/λ and determine the slope of the line. It will give the value
of hc/e. Put the value of c(3e8 m/s) and e(1.6e−19 C).Deduce the value of planck constant h.

Calculations:

L. E.D Colour Voltage V (volts) Wave length λ (nm) frequency [Hz] Energy [J]
Blue 430
Green 565
Yellow 590
Red 627

Plank’s constant is h = E/f = ec V λ.

Results:
Observed value of Planck’s constant is h = ...........Js.

3
Error
Standard value − observed value
%Error = (9)
standard value
Therefore, percentage error = .............