School of Physics

University of the Witwatersrand

Modern Physics
(The Mystery of Reality)

Prof. Elias Sideras-Haddad, Email: Elias.Sideras-Haddad@Wits.ac.za, School of Physics

Suggested Books

1. Concepts of Modern Physics Arthur Beiser, McGraw-Hill

2. Modern Physics, Randy Harris

3. Modern Physics Taylor, Zafiratos and Dubson

4. Modern Physics Schaum’s Series (for the Special Relativity

part)
 This Course consists of 30 lectures and tutorials

I shall try to present the course following a historical sequence of

identified problems and their solution through the birth of new ideas.
This, I hope, will help the student to understand how new concepts
and new ways of thinking came to be as result of evolution of ideas,
technology involved and talent rather than ….celestial inspirations.

• Crisis of Newtonia/Classical Physics in late 1900’s

• Development of Quantum and Atomic Physics

•Development of the Special Theory of Relativity

• Some consequences of "modern physics" in today’s world

Late 1900: A Crisis in Classical Physics and the Dawn of a New Age

Within about 200 years from Newton to Boltzmann and Maxwell there was a
glorious development of Classical Physics that could describe nature “as we knew
it”. Classical Mechanics, Statistical Thermodynamics, Electromagnetism.

Physics: A complete science that was shaping the world. (Steam engine, industrial
revolution, electrification of London 1882…)
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But…by 1890 certain observations brought into question, or directly contradicted,
certain theories which seemed to be strongly supported by the experimental
evidence over the last two centuries.

The inability of the Classical Physics to answer the new questions constituted a

Deep Crisis which at that time shocked

the very foundations of science as a whole.

Most of these questions and observations could not be explained in terms of

existing theories.

It is interesting to note that, ultimately, most of these problems were related to the
quest for the nature of electromagnetic waves and light in general.
 The radical explanations of these problems by some of the greatest
minds the world has ever seen gave rise to a new era,
the one of Modern Physics based on the development of :

•Quantum Mechanics

and

•Special Relativity

Some of these ideas in these theories are strange and counter-intuitive.

They seem contrary to common sense –
BUT…. if we are willing to make the conceptual adjustment, they do
enable us to
understand nature in a much more profound way.
Some of the problems that led to the development of Quantum Mechanics are:

The Black Body Radiation: Maxwell's equations of Electromagnetism and

Statistical Mechanics were incapable of correctly reproducing the spectrum of
electromagnetic radiation emitted by a hot body, particularly the high
frequencies. This “Ultraviolet Catastrophe'‘ was resolved by Max Planck by
postulating that electromagnetic energy is emitted in quanta.

The Photoelectric Effect: When light was used to knock electrons out of solids,
the results were in disagreement with Maxwell's equations. Albert Einstein
resolved the crisis by assuming that light is made up of particles with the
energies Planck postulated. A suggestion that questioned the wave nature of
light as shown in many experiments over the previous 200 years.
The discrete line (atomic) spectra of light emitted by heated gasses also came
out in quantized amounts in contradiction to the predictions of classical
physics. The resolution by Bohr who extended the concept of quantization to
angular momentum led to the discovery of the atom. It took a full
understanding of Quantum Mechanics to explain the atomic energy spectra.

The puzzle of the constant velocity of light, and the false concept of “ether”
lead to the development of the Special Theory of Relativity by young Albert
Einstein that changed our concepts of space and time in the most
extraordinary manner.
 Black Body Radiation or …The Ultraviolet Catastroph !
How Heated Bodies Radiate : A riddle for …another century !
How do heated bodies radiate? Need to have a chat with Uncle Maxwell…(don’t
forget he had no idea of what an electron is…)

Heat was known to cause the molecules and atoms of a solid to vibrate, and it was
known that the molecules and atoms (rather a philosophical concept at that time)
were themselves complicated patterns of electrical charges.

Hertz and Maxwell: oscillating charges emit electromagnetic radiation (simple

antennas), this radiation travels at the speed of light.

Light itself, and the closely related infrared heat radiation, are actually
electromagnetic waves.

Heat = Electromagnetic Radiation

The picture: When a body is heated, the consequent vibrations on a molecular and
atomic scale must include oscillating charges.

These oscillating charges would radiate, giving off heat and light.
What is fire ?
What is a Blackbody?
Heated charged particles jiggle around and accelerated charges emit
electromagnetic radiation. The amount of energy radiated depends on the
average motion and therefore on temperature. Hot ion radiates in the red.

Most materials also reflect electromagnetic radiation. A blackbody is

defined to be any object from which the incoming electromagnetic
radiation that strikes it is absorbed rather than reflected.

To make any progress in understanding this radiation, we must specify the

details of the body radiating. The simplest possible model is to consider a
body which is a perfect absorber, and therefore the best possible emitter.
For obvious reasons, this is a “Blackbody".

(Absorbing and emitting radiation must be interelated; a body at a constant

temperature is in thermal equilibrium with its surroundings and therefore it
must emit as much as it absorbs).
Observing the Blackbody Spectrum

A good model absorber is a small hole in the side of a box. Radiation

impinging on the hole from outside enters the box and is absorbed as it is
scattered around inside, so only a tiny fraction is re-emitted.

Find how much radiant energy is being emitted in each frequency

range, say the energy between frequency f and f + df is RT(f)df.

Black Body

Photo
detector
Rayleigh’s Idea: Count Standing Waves Similar to an analysis of standing
sound waves in a cubical room
The radiation is seen as a collection of standing waves in a cubic box.
First consider the different allowed modes of vibration, that is, standing waves,
in a string of length L fixed at both ends:
 Radiation inside the cavity must be a series of standing electromagnetic waves.
Therefore, the path length from wall to wall must be a whole number of half
wavelengths, so that a node occurs at each reflecting surface.

l = 2L /3

l=L

l = 2L

We define the spectral density by stating that

number of modes between n and n+ Δn = N(n) Δn

where we assume that Δn is large compared with the spacing between successive
frequencies. Evidently for this one-dimensional exercise N(n ) is a constant equal to
2L/c, each mode corresponds to an integer point on the real axis in units c/2L.
Between two end points there can be two standing waves, one for each polarization.
mz

R = (2L/c)n
dR = (2L/c)dn

my

mx
mz

R = (2L/c)n
dR = (2L/c)dn

my

mx
Equipartition of Energy?

A central result of classical statistical mechanics is the equipartition of

energy:
Equipartition of energy: In thermal equilibrium, the average energy per
degree of freedom is: ½ kT

A degree of freedom is a mode of energy possession. A molecule in a gas has

3 degrees of freedom and therefore 3/2kT

One-dimensional harmonic oscilator : Kinetic + potential energy ( 2 degrees

of freedom), so 2/2 kT = kT
Rayleigh & Jeans

As the f increases towards the

ultraviolet then the energy
should increase as f2 .

But the experiments show the

opposite: As f increases the
energy density falls to zero 0!

ULTRAVIOLET CATASTROPHE!!!!
The change in fmax is linear in the absolute temperature;
Wein's Displacement Law.

Stefan’s Law of radiation

The problem is that as we

go to higher frequencies,
there are more and more
possible degrees of
Rayleigh & Jeans
freedom. The oven should
be radiating huge
amounts of energy in the
blue and ultraviolet. But
it isn't.

Ultraviolet
Catastroph!!!
 Quantum Theory
Max Planck and quantised energy

On the 14th December 1900 (i.e. about 114 years ago) Max Planck
delivered a famous lecture to the German Physics Society. This was later
published in the Verhandlungen der Deutschen Physikalischen Gesellschaft
vol. 2, p 237 as ‘Zur Theorie des Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im
Normalspektrum’.

This can be translated as something like: ‘Towards a theory of the energy

distribution in a normal spectrum.’
In this work Planck pointed out that the “ultraviolet catastrophe’ could be
overcome if the absorption and emission of radiation always take place in
“discrete bundles of radiation or “quanta” where the amount of energy is
related to the frequency of the radiation through the formula:

E=hv

He used the idea that the oscillators could

only have certain discrete energies: E = n hn

In other words that they are quantised.

 In this theory Planck made two assumptions:

• Each oscillator can absorb or emit radiation energy only in an

amount proportional to its frequency.

The molecules emit or absorb radiation in discrete packets of radiation.

A single one of these packets has an energy, E = hn and is called a….

photon.

• The molecules exist in states that have discrete amounts of energy,

E = nhn.

Here n is a positive integer, called the quantum number and n is the

frequency of vibration of the molecule.
 hn No continuous emission of radiation, in contrast to
______________ Maxwell's equations
e hn/KT - 1

Radiation is emitted in chunks - called quanta - of a definite magnitude.

Classically we saw that the average energy density per unit frequency is:

For higher frequencies, he suggested, the radiation had to be emitted in

bigger chunks. 8 p hn 3
______________
e hn/KT - 1

The size of the energy quantum depends linearly on the frequency,

E = hv

where h is Planck's constant.

 Planck 1900: ...
the whole procedure was an act of despair because a theoretical
interpretation had to be found at any price, no matter how high that
might be...
 The Discovery of the Electron.

The Cathode-ray tube was developed in 1854 Plücker (Germany) who by sealing
two electrodes inside the tube, evacuating the air, and forcing electric current
between the electrodes found a green glow on the wall of his glass tube.

The British physicist and chemist

Sir William Crookes investigated
cathode rays in 1879 and found
that they were bent by a magnetic
field; the direction of deflection
suggested that they were negatively
charged particles.
 Most German physicists believed that the rays were waves because they traveled
in straight lines and were unaffected by gravity.

In 1892 Heinrich Hertz, reported that the cathode rays were not deflected when
they passed between two oppositely charged plates in an 1892 experiment.

The English physicist J.J. Thomson didn’t …buy it!

Thomson repeated Hertz's experiment with a better

vacuum in 1897. He directed the cathode rays between two
parallel aluminum plates to the end of a tube where they
were observed as luminescence on the glass.
When the top aluminum plate was negative, the rays moved down; when the
upper plate was positive, the rays moved up. The deflection was proportional to
the difference in potential between the plates. With both magnetic and electric
deflections observed, it was clear that cathode rays were negatively charged
particles.

Thomson's called his particles electrons.

From the magnitude of the electrical and magnetic deflections, Thomson
could calculate the ratio of mass to charge for the electrons.

He discovered that the mass of the electron was very small, merely 1/1836
that of a hydrogen ion.

From this ratio he then derived the electron's velocity. It was 1/10 the speed
of light, thus amounting to roughly 30,000 kilometres per second.

Thus, the electron was the first subatomic particle identified, the smallest
and the fastest bit of matter known at the time.

EXERCISE: Write down the equations for a particle in a magnetic

and an electric field that produce a net force equal to zero and reproduce
Thomson’s calculation of the ratio of mass to charge for the electrons.

How was the mass of the electron measured?

In 1909 the American physicist Robert Andrews Millikan greatly improved a
method employed by Thomson for measuring the electron charge directly.

Millikan produced microscopic oil droplets and observed them falling in the
space between two electrically charged plates. Some of the droplets became
charged and could be suspended by a delicate adjustment of the electric field.

Millikan knew the

a) weight of the droplets from their rate of fall when the
electric field was turned off.

b) From the balance of the gravitational and electrical

forces, he could determine the charge on the droplets.

He could find charges only in integral multiples of a

quantity that in contemporary units is 1.602 × 10-19
Coulomb.
 The Photoelectric Effect
In 1899 JJ. Thomson established that ultraviolet light
shinning on certain metals caused electrons to be emitted.

In 1902, Lenard investigated whether the energy of the emitted

photoelectrons is dependent on the intensity of the light.

Increasing the
light intensity
increased the
number of
electrons emitted
The ejected electrons hit a metal plate, which was connected to the cathode by
a wire with a sensitive ammeter, to measure the current produced by the
illumination.

To measure the energy of the ejected electrons, he charged the collector plate
negatively, to repel the electrons coming towards it. Thus, only electrons
ejected with enough kinetic energy to get up this potential hill would
contribute to the current.
Lenard also checked the photoelectric effect using light of different colours.

He found that the maximum energy of the ejected electrons DEPENDS on

the colour / frequency
 Lenard’s observations:

• Increasing the light intensity increased the number of

electrons emitted

• There was a well defined minimum voltage that stopped any

electrons getting through, we'll call it Vstop.

• To his surprise, he found that Vstop did not depend at all on

the intensity of the light! Instead it depends on the
colour/frequency !!!
 Lenard’s Observations

• Increasing the light intensity →

❖ increased the number of electrons emitted,
❖ but did not affect the energies of the emitted electrons.

• The maximum energy of the ejected electrons did depend on the colour
----the higher frequency light caused electrons to be ejected with more
energy.

• For light below certain frequency (cut off frequency) there were no
photoelectrons emitted

• The electrons are emitted almost immediately when light shines on the
metal cathode
Photoelectric Effect : A Combination of Light and Electricity

Electricity is associated with the recently discovered electrons.

But what is light?

Remember that the question of whether light consists of waves or
particles had been controversial even at the time of Newton (1642-
1727).

Strangely, Newton considered that light consists of a stream of particles.

Christian Huygens (1629-1695) proposed that it is a wave motion.

Why was light considered to be a wave?

According to Lenard’s findings: The maximum
energy of the ejected electrons depends on the
colour/frequency
Lenard’s Observation 2 :
Lenard’s Observation 3 :
 Einstein Suggests an Explanation for the
Photoelectric Effect

The incoming radiation, light, consists of

quanta of frequency hf, with f the frequency.

In photoemission, one such quantum is absorbed by one electron. There will

always be some electrostatic cost as the electron leaves the surface, this is usually
called the work function, W. This W is the energy (or work) required to extract an
electron completely from a metal surface. The most energetic electrons emitted
will be those very close to the surface, and they will leave the cathode with kinetic
energy
E = hf – W
eVstop = hf – W
It is clear that there is a minimum light frequency for a given metal, that for which
the quantum of energy is equal to the work function. Light below that frequency,
no matter how bright, will not cause photoemission.
E = hf
 Planck to Einstein:

I hereby award you the Planck Medal because you expanded my

desperate idea of quantum of energy to the even more desperate
idea of quantum of light.
But There Were Doubters:
 Cooking Gases…

In 1752, Thomas Melville: putting different substances in flames,

and passing the light through a prism, gives different patterned
spectra.

GAS

Hot Plate

Analyzing Light… The first Atomic Physics Experiments !!!

The spectrum of hydrogen first observed by Anders Angstrom in Uppsala,
Sweden, in 1853.

In 1855, David Alter described the spectrum of hydrogen and other gases.

The first really systematic investigation of spectra was that of

Bunsen and Kirchhoff, in Heidelberg, between 1855 and 1863. –
…..the flame of a Bunsen burner technique.
Studied the spectra of electric arcs between electrodes of different materials.

Using iron electrodes got a spectrum that coincided with dark lines in the
sun's spectrum. Copper electrodes did not. They concluded that the sun's
atmosphere contained iron, but not much copper.
Kirchhoff and Bunsen determined thousands of spectral lines, each to an
accuracy of one part in ten thousand.

They spectroscopically discovered new elements: rubidium and cesium.

Their method was used to find fifteen more new elements before the end of
the century.
 Can spectral lines which correspond to an element
be a clue as to the
internal structure of the atom?

Johann Balmer: the most likely atom to show simple spectral

patterns was the lightest atom, hydrogen.

Angstrom had measured the four visible spectral lines to have

wavelengths 6562.10, 4860.74, 4340.1 and 4101.2 in Angstrom units
(10-10 meters).

Balmer concentrated on just these four numbers, and found they

were given by the formula:

where b = 3645.6 Angstroms, and n = 3, 4, 5, 6.

Balmer suggested that there would be other lines - in the infrared -
corresponding to n = 7, 8, etc., and in fact some of them had already
been observed, unbeknownst to Balmer.

It is instructive to write Balmer's general formula in terms of the

inverse wavelength. This is called the wave number - the number of
waves that fit in one unit of length.

where n, m are integers,

and RH is the Rydberg constant, 109,737 cm-1.

1906 J. J. Thomson : The Plum Pudding Model,
a large round pudding with raisins embedded in it.

Analysis of the scattering of X-rays by gases and of absorption of

beta-rays by solids, both of which are affected by electrons,
indicate that the number of electrons in an atom was approximately
equal to the atomic number.

Perhaps by analyzing possible modes of vibration of electrons in

these configurations, the spectra could be calculated.
 What is the colour of an Atom?

Take the simplest atom

Hydrogen.

Positively charged pudding

with only one electron at the
centre…..

By "color" we mean here the spectral colors emitted when the atom is
excited. …… The four Lines of Hydrogen

In the plum pudding model, there is a clear relationship between

the size of the pudding and the frequency at which the electron will
oscillate, and hence presumably radiate, when excited. At rest in its
lowest state, the electron just sits in the middle of this sphere of charge.
When bumped somehow, it will oscillate about that point.

Many different mathematical models and attempts led NOWHERE!

The plum pudding model fails to reproduce the Four Lines of Hydrogen
 Rutherford the … “Alpha-Male” !

Rutherford was a "tribal chief", as a student said.

Nobel lecture: "The chemical nature of the alpha-particle from
radioactive substances".

We now know that an alpha-particle is He-4 (two protons and two neutrons)
 Rutherford’s alpha scattering experiment !

Alpha-particles from radium was

directed normally on to the Au
scattering foil F. By rotating the
microscope [M] the alpha particles
scattered in different directions could
be observed on the zinc sulphide screen
“S" .
A single alpha caused a slight fluorescence on the screen S at the end of
the microscope. This could only be reliably seen by dark-adapted eyes
(after half an hour in complete darkness) and one person could only count
the flashes accurately for one minute before needing a break, and counts
above 90 per minute were too fast for reliability.
The experiment accumulated data from hundreds of thousands of flashes.
Could any alpha-particles be scattered through a large angle?
They shouldn’t, since the alpha-particle is massive particle and if the
scattering was due to the accumulated effect of a number of small
scatterings, the chance of an alpha-particle's being scattered backward
was very small.
But …Surprise, Surprise !!!

"We have been able to get some of the alpha-particles coming backward
…" It was quite the most incredible event that ever happened to me in my
life. It was almost as incredible as if you fired a 15-inch shell at a piece of
tissue paper and it came back and hit you."
 Rutherford said later: “On consideration, I realized that this scattering
backwards must be the result of a single collision, and when I made
calculations I saw that it was impossible to get anything of that order of
magnitude unless you took a system in which the greater part of the mass of the
atom was concentrated in a minute nucleus. It was then that I had the idea of
an atom with a minute but massive centre carrying a charge.”
….NUCLEUS!!!
The positive charge is in a sphere of radius certainly less than 10-13 meters!

For a nucleus of charge Z, and incident alpha particles of mass m and speed
v, the rate of scattering to a point on the screen corresponding to a
scattering angle of theta (angle between incident velocity and final velocity
of alpha) is proportional to:
 The Bohr Atom
1911: Niels Bohr comes to Cambridge!

What Determines the size of the nuclear hydrogen atom ?

A simple dynamical equation for circular orbits:

No hint here that the atom in its "natural" ground state

should have any particular radius.

Are we missing something?

 Does Planck's constant somehow play a role in determining the
size of the orbit ?

Bohr : in an atom in its natural rest state, the electron must be in a

special orbit, he called it a "stationary state" to which the usual
rules of electromagnetic radiation didn't apply. In this orbit, which
determins the size of the atom, the electron, mysteriously, …
… should not radiate!

Black Body radiation…..E=hf …….

Mmmm !!! ?????

How about connecting frequency f with the circular frequency of

the electron in its orbit
How about connecting frequency f with the circular frequency of
the electron in its orbit

f = 1 / T = v / 2pr

But atom frequency varied with the size of the orbit..…

Well, anyway, multiplying it by h gives an energy. What energy

could that be identified with?

the electron has a kinetic energy E

 r = 4pe0 h2 / 2p2 2me2

Hence the approximate size of the atom follows from dimensional

arguments alone once one assumes that Planck's constant plays a
role!

This assumption explained more than the size of the hydrogen

atom. It was believed at the time that in the larger atoms, the
electrons formed rings, thought to lie one outside the other, and
various stability arguments indicated that there couldn't be more
than seven electrons in a ring.

Oscillations of electrons in this ring might be giving the observed

line spectra …….???.…….a bit of a mess….!!!!
Bohr on holiday to Denmark: Changes his mind about the spectra

Balmer's formula is:

Bohr said later:

"As soon as I saw Balmer's formula, the whole thing was

immediately clear to me."

What he saw was that the set of allowed frequencies (proportional to

inverse wavelengths) emitted by the hydrogen atom could all be
expressed as differences.
This immediately suggested to Bohr a generalization of his idea of a
"stationary state" lowest energy level, in which the electron did not
radiate.

There must be a whole sequence of these stationary states, with

radiation only taking place as the atom jumps from one to another
of lower energy, emitting a single quantum of frequency f such that :

hf = En – Em
 The Balmer formula gave Bohr the essential clue that led to the realization
that the angular momentum is quantized:

L = Kh, 2Kh, 3Kh, ...

where h is Planck's constant, as usual, and K is some constant numerical

factor.

How much is K ?
Let us assume this large orbit is the nth, so it has angular momentum:

L=mvr
L=nKh

Using

we find that
 from which we find the radii of
the allowed orbits are given by

Total
Energy

Therefore the allowed energies are:

Thus for n very large:

Now this energy difference between two allowed energy states (En+1 –
En ), FOR LARGE n, must be equal to hf = h v/2p r for the
appropriate v, r for this orbit: En+1 - En = hf

Using mvnrn = nKh , then vn = nKh/mrn.

Thus

hf = hv/2p r = nKh2/2p mrn2.

Putting now

En+1 - En = hf = h.v/2p r = nKh2/2p mrn2

And using
 gives

But also

Canceling out common factors of the two, we find that the condition
for equality is:

K = ½p

This was the argument Bohr used to establish that angular momentum
for his model is quantized in units of: h/2p

ℏ = h/2p
With ke=1/4peo
The energy of the atom when
the electron is in the nth orbit
is then:

in the case of the

hydrogen atom
 Problems with the Bohr Model

Although the Bohr model was astonishingly successful for the

hydrogen atom, it has severe limitations.

For example consider the following points.

• It does not explain the spectra of more complex atoms.

• A charged particle moving in an orbit should emit energy and

spiral into the nucleus. In the Bohr model, the electron in a stable
orbit doesn’t.

• It doesn’t explain the line intensities and the splitting of spectral

lines.

• It does not make any contribution to our understanding of how

atoms interact with each other to produce the observed physical
and chemical properties of matter.
In 1896 Pieter Zeeman observed that under a magnetic field atomic
spectral lines split into multiple energy levels.
This is called the Zeeman Effect.
Where L=mvr is the magnitude
of the angular momentum
 Allowed transitions:
Electrons absorbing or emitting
photons can change states when
Δℓ = ±1 and Δmℓ = 0, ±1.
Orbital configurations up to 7s
The Stern-Gerlach Experiment: quantization of electron spin
The silver atoms have a single outer electron . Since this electron has zero
orbital angular momentum (orbital quantum number l =0), one would expect
there to be no interaction with an external magnetic field.
The beam was directed into a region of nonuniform magnetic field
Stern and Gerlach (see experiment sketch). A magnetic dipole moment will
experience a force proportional to the field gradient since the two "poles"
will be subject to different fields. Classically one would expect all possible
orientations of the dipoles so that a continuous smear would be produced
on the photographic plate, but they found that the field separated the beam
into two distinct parts, indicating just two possible orientations of the
magnetic moment of the electron.

But how does the electron obtain a magnetic moment if it has zero angular
momentum and therefore produces no "current loop" to produce a magnetic
moment? In 1925, Samuel A. Goudsmit and George E. Uhlenbeck
postulated that the electron had an intrinsic angular momentum,
independent of its orbital characteristics. In classical terms, a ball of charge
could have a magnetic moment if it were spinning such that the charge
at the edges produced an effective current loop. This kind of reasoning
led to the use of "electron spin" to describe the intrinsic angular
momentum.
 Shaping the Atom
The principal quantum number n is always a positive integer. Each
atom has, in general, many orbitals associated with each value of n;
these orbitals together are sometimes called electron shells.

The azimuthal quantum number l is a non-negative integer. Within

a shell where n is some integer n0, l ranges beteen:

.
For instance, the n = 1 shell has only orbitals with l =0 , and the n = 2
shell has only orbitals with l =0 and l =1 . The set of orbitals associated
with a particular value of l is usually referred to as subshell.

The magnetic quantum number ml is also always an integer. Within

a subshell where l is some integer l0 , ml ranges:
Subshells are usually identified by their n- and l -values. n is represented by
its numerical value, but l is also represented by a letter as follows:

l =0 is represented by ‘ s ',
l =1 by ‘ p ', 2 by ‘ d ',
l =3 by ‘ f ',
l =4 by ‘ g '.

For example, one may speak of the subshell with n = 2 and l =0 as a 2s

subshell '.
 Allowed transitions:
Electrons absorbing or emitting
photons can change states when
Δℓ = ±1 and Δmℓ = 0, ±1.
 Particles and Waves

For light this had emerged from the work of Planck

in explaining black body radiation and, more
explicitly, in Einstein’s explanation of the
photoelectric effect.

In 1923 in his doctoral dissertation Louis de Broglie

(1892 - 1987) extended this idea. He proposed that
all forms of matter have both wave and particle
properties.
He started from Einstein's idea that a duality is necessary to understand
light.

He wrote that the wave/particle duality discovered by Einstein in his

theory of light quanta is absolutely general and extends to all the
physical world.

He said: “It would seem that the basic idea of quantum theory is the
impossibility of imagining an isolated quantity of energy without
associating with it a certain frequency.”

For radiation, if we have the frequency f, then we know that the

radiation sometimes behaves like a stream of particles, each of which
has an energy:

de Broglie proposed that any particle with an energy E would have an

associated frequency: .
 The Compton Effect or Compton Scattering
A particularly beautiful example of the use of the particle nature of
radiation to explain observations is that of
Compton scattering.

Classically it was not possible to understand the scattering of X-Rays

(for example) by matter.

The photons as well as

the electrons behaved
like point particles in l
these elastic collisions.

In 1923 Compton
realised that this
scattering could be
understood in terms of
elastic collisions l’
between particles
E = Pc so P = h/l
The electron can recoil with speeds that are comparable with the velocity of
light and the relativistic expressions for the energy and momentum should
actually be used. But of course the relationship also holds for lower energy
photons and electrons. In that case the kinetic energy of the scattered electron
is just:

The result of the scattering is that there is a shift in the wavelength of the
photon. This shift is directly related to the angle through which the photon is
scattered:
A “Tsotsi” Double Slit Experiment
Water Waves - Interference
In 1801 Thomas Young: A double slit experiment for light

In 1801 Thomas Young: a

double slit experiment for
light. The result was an
interference pattern.

Light is a Wave

The figure shows an actual

result from the double slit
experiment for light.

Light is a Wave!!!
 A Double - Slit Experiment with Electrons

Now, "everybody knows" that electrons are particles. They have a well
defined mass, electric charge, etc. Waves do not have well defined masses
etc.

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When an electron leaves the electron gun, a fraction of a second later a

flash of light appears on the screen indicating where it landed.

A wave behaves differently: when a wave leaves the source, it spreads out
distributing its energy. Since this is not happening in the case above, we
conclude that the electrons are particles.
 When we place Two Slits in the path of the
electrons

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on the screen we now see an…… interference pattern !!!

In fact, what we see on the screen looks identical to the Double Slit
interference pattern for light that we saw earlier. So here, we conclude
that the electrons behave like waves!

Welcome to
the Bizarre and Fascinating World of Quantum Mechanics!
One might argue that perhaps the electrons going through the upper slit
are somehow interacting with the electrons going through the lower slit.

Let us then fire only one electron at a time towards the slits and register
where the flash of light occurs on the phosphor screen.

We wait a while for everything to settle down, then fire another electron,
nothing again where it lands on the screen.

We do this a couple of thousands of times and at the end we discover

that the distribution of electrons is still an interference pattern!!!

Whatever is going on to cause the interference pattern

has nothing to do with two or more electrons
interacting with each other .
Now, to get an interference pattern we take a wave,
split it up into two parts, send each part through
one of the slits, and then recombine the waves.

Does this mean that a single electron is somehow

going through both slits at once? Let’s test it…

D1

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D2

Detector 1 ‘sees’ half the electrons going through the upper slit, and detector
2 ‘sees’ half going through the lower slit.
But…..Hey, the interference pattern has just gone away!
It seems that when we “look” at what is going on at the slits we cause an
irreversible change in the behaviour of the electrons.

Any measurement on any system causes a disturbance in the system.

The conclusion of all this is that there is no experiment that can tell us
what the electrons are doing at the exact position of the slits that does
not also destroy the interference pattern.

As Werner Heisenberg said:

"The path of the electron comes into existence only

when we observe it."
 The probability of where the electron is in space is a wave.

When we don't look, the probability wave has two pieces at the slits, 50%
chance the electron went through the upper slit and a 50% chance it went
through the lower slit.

These two probability waves from the two slits, then, recombine at the
screen and cause the interference pattern.

This is known as quantum interference and results from the

superposition of the possible electron states

When we look, we "collapse the state" in a 100% chance it went through

one slit and a 0% chance it went through the other.

In one model the electron is a particle that somehow exhibits an

interference pattern. In the other model, the electron is a wave that
somehow manifests as a particle whenever we look at it.
 There is another important consequence of the fact that
every particle has a wave associated with it.

It turns out that there is an uncertainty in our ability to establish, at the same
time, values for two quantities like momentum and position (or energy and
time) for any particle.

It turns out that this uncertainty is a basic fact of Nature.

For example:
if a measurement of position is made with a precision and a
simultaneous measurement of the momentum is made with a
precision , then it is always found that:

It is physically impossible to measure the exact position

and the exact momentum of a particle simultaneously.
When you multiply the uncertainties together you always get a value:

Heisenberg’s Uncertaintity Principle !!!!

 Richard Feynman
Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics 1965 - QED
Stimulated Emission

LASER: Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

In a two level system, the particles have only two available

energy levels. When a particle in the upper state interacts with a
photon matching the energy separation of the levels, the particle
may decay, emitting another photon with the same phase and
frequency as the incident photon.

In a laser we strive to create a "population inversion"

where most or all of the particles instead of being in the
ground state they are in the excited state. This is achieved
by adding energy to the laser medium (usually from an
electrical discharge or an optical source such as another
laser or a flashlamp); this process is called pumping
Properties of normal lasers:

• Monochromaticity: very narrow frequency

• Coherent output: all photons in phase

Gain
Suppose we have just pumped our laser medium so that all of the particles are
in their excited state. One of those particles now spontaneously decays back
down to its ground state, emitting a photon (hv0). This photon is of the right
frequency to stimulate emission from another excited state particle, which
emits another photon which can stimulate another excited state particle, and so
on.
 Three Level Laser Schemes

The energy being used to pump the

particles into the upper laser state has
an equal probability of stimulating
them back down. Thus it is not
possible to get more than half of the
particles into the excited state.

The particles then decay down into the upper laser state. It is important for the
pumped state to have a short lifetime for spontaneous emission compared to the
upper laser state. The upper laser state should have as long a lifetime (for
spontaneous emission) as possible, so that the particles live long enough to be
stimulated and thus contribute to the gain.
 LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LAB – LLNL
NUCLEAR WEAPONS LAB - The most powerful LASERS in the world
( NIF National Ignition Facility)
STAR WARS
Example

A laser operates in the red end of the spectrum at a wavelength of 650 nm.
Calculate the difference between the electronic energy levels in the lasing material
in electron volts.

SOLUTION

DW = hf =hc/l = = 6,63.10-34. 3,00.108 / 650. 10-9 = 3,06.10-19 J = 1,91 eV

 Attenuation of X-Ray Radiation
The X-ray photon fluence, Φ, is defined by Φ = N/S – i.e.
the number of photons that cross a unit area at right angles to
the beam.

Suppose we have beam of X- or gamma rays, incident on a

thin sheet of material with a fluence of Φ(0). These photons
will interact with the atoms of the material and will be lost to
the beam. This is the process we call attenuation of the
beam.
So the number of particles lost to the beam between a depth x and a depth (x+dx)
can be written mathematically as
dΦ = – μΦdx,

where the constant of proportionality, μ, is called the linear attenuation coefficient.

The negative sign in this equation accounts for the fact that the original photons are
reduced.
The solution to this equation is

Φ (x) = Φ (0) exp(-μx)

The linear attenuation coefficient, μ, depends

on the type and energy of radiation and the
properties of the material.

In particular, μ is proportional to the density of

the material (ρ) and it is often convenient to
define the mass attenuation coefficient for a
given material m, (μ/ρ)m.

The half-value layer for certain material for X-rays is the thickness, x1/2 , by which
the original intensity of the X-Ray beam is attenuated by half .
The penetration of X-rays is much greater
than that of electrons, as the figure
opposite shows. This is a “depth-dose”
curve, which compares the penetrating
power in tissue of 4 MeV X-rays to that
of 12 MeV electrons; the scales have
been normalized to make the dose agree
at the maxima for each particle. (At these
energies, you should be able to judge
whether the beams would be used for
therapeutic rather than diagnostic
purposes). Note that even though the
electrons are of much higher energy, they
do not penetrate nearly so far into the
tissue as do the X-rays.
Example

The half-value layer for lead for X-rays of a certain energy is 15mm. Calculate the
thickness of lead required to reduce the intensity of a beam of these X-rays to 0.1%
of its original value. (half-value layer is the layer required to reduce the X-rays
intensity by half).

Solution

I = Io exp (-m x)

1/2 Io = Io exp (-m x1/2) so m x1/2 = ln2

Also
1/1000 Io = Io exp (-m x) and so m x = ln1000

From the above, x / x1/2 = ln1000 /ln2 and therefore x = 149m