DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS

Group #2
Ahmed Sami, Ali Hassan, Zeeshan Afzal & Arslan Zahoor
Semester #4
Experiment: To calculate the Planck’s constant by photo-emission
technique (photo electric effect)
Electron trajectories in a uniform magnetic field.
Submitted to: Dr Sarmad Shaheen Masood
Lab lV
Problem Statement:
To calculate the Planck’s constant by photo-emission technique (photo electric effect)

Aim
Planck's constant is essential for understanding the motions of atoms and subatomic particles, as
well as how quantum mechanics and modern electronics operate. At the time, existing formulas
did not describe accurately the observed results for all temperatures.
History/Theory
The Planck constant, or Planck's constant, is a fundamental physical constant of foundational
importance in quantum mechanics. The constant gives the relationship between the energy of
a photon and its frequency, and by the mass-energy equivalence, the relationship between mass
and frequency. Specifically, a photon's energy is equal to its frequency multiplied by the Planck
constant. The constant is generally denoted by “h”. The reduced Planck constant, or Dirac
constant, equal to the constant divided by 2 π is denoted by”h”.

In metrology it is used, together with other constants, to define the kilogram, the SI unit of
mass. The SI units are defined in such a way that, when the Planck constant is expressed in SI
units, it has the exact value h = 6.62607015×10−34 J⋅Hz−1

the constant was first postulated by Max Planck in 1900 as part of a solution to the ultraviolet
catastrophe. At the end of the 19th century, accurate measurements of the spectrum of black
body radiation existed, but the distribution of those measurements at higher frequencies diverged
significantly from what was predicted by then-existing theories. Planck empirically derived a
formula for the observed spectrum. He assumed that a hypothetical electrically charged oscillator
in a cavity that contained black-body radiation can only change its energy in quantized steps, and
that the energies of those steps are proportional to the frequency of the oscillator's associated
electromagnetic wave. He was able to calculate the proportionality constant from experimental
measurements, and that constant is named in his honor.
Using LEDs to estimate the Planck Constant h
When a large enough potential difference is applied across a light-emitting diode (LED), it emits
photons that all have the same wavelength and frequency
When the LED just begins to glow, the energy, E, lost by each electron as it passes through the
LED is converted into the energy of a single photon
The energy, E, of a photon is equal to:
Eg=hν=hc/λ
Where:
f = frequency of the emitted photon (Hz)
λ = wavelength of the emitted photon (m)
h = Planck’s constant (J.Hz−1)
c = speed of light (m s–1)
The energy lost by each electron is:
E = e∆V
Where:
e = elementary charge (C)
∆V = potential difference across the LED (V)
Equating the two energies gives the equation:
h=ⅇ ΔV / Δv

This equation can then be used to estimate the Planck's constant, h

Observations

x(frequency) y(voltage) Slope=(y2-y1/x2-x1)

5.196 0.5
5.49 0.628 y=mx+b
6.879 1.104
7.408 1.35
8.214 1.634
Slope: 0.373840313
Y-intercept: -1.4381277
 1.8
1.634
1.6

1.4 1.35

1.2 1.104

1
voltage(v)

0.8
0.628
0.6 0.5

0.4

0.2

0
5 5.5 6 6.5 7 7.5 8 8.5
frequency(hz)