C8.

Electronics and Radio-Electronics

Part I

CONTENTS

1. Forerunners of electron discovering

2. Electron as an elementary particle
3. Mass of electron
4. Measuring the electron charge
5. Interpretations of the mass and form of the electron
6. Applications of the electron discovery
- the structure and the properties of dielectrics
- the electric properties of metals
 1. Forerunners of electron discovering

Key points

1747 – Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

 He sustained the theory of the electric fluid.

 an object will be “plus electrified” that is “charged with fluid”
 while the other one will be “”less electrified, that is “minus”.
He also thought about “the electric material which is composed by
extremely subtle particles, because they can cross the regular material
and even the thickest metals.”

1870 - William Crookes (1832-1919).

He made the experiments on electrical discharges in vacuum
He supposes that the radiations produced inside the vacuumed tube
named ions are currents of invisible particles, electrically charged.
 1. Forerunners of electron discovering
cca. 1747 cca. 1870

Sir William Crookes

(1832–1919).

(The Library of
Congress)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Drawing Electricity from the Sky
cca. 1816 at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art, by Benjamin West
 1. Forerunners of electron discovering

1881 – Hermann Helmholtz (1821-

1894)

 The electric charges in an atom are

made of identical units:
“electricity, positive and negative, is
formed by defined elementary particles,
which behave like electricity atoms”.

Hermann Helmholtz
(1821-1894)
 1. Forerunners of electron discovering

1891 – George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911)

He predicts that the unit of electrical charge is around 10 at power(-20)
C (coulombs), a close value to the actual determined one, of 1,6021892.10
at power (-19) C.
Based on electrolysis, he introduces the term electron as
“natural unit of electric charge that a monovalent ion carries during the
process of electrolysis”.

George Johnstone Stoney (1826-1911)

 2. Electron as an elementary particle

Scientific schools

Two schools have proposed different interpretations on the nature of

cathode radiations, discovered in the middle of the 19-th century.

German school represented by:

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894)
Phillip Lenard (1862-1947),
- they consider that cathode radiations are electromagnetic waves
because these radiations pass through metallic foils.

English school, represented by:

Joseph John Thomson (1864 -1940)
- He gives to cathode radiations a corpuscular nature, because the
speed of propagation of cathode radiations is much smaller than
the light speed.
 2. Electron as an elementary particle

About German school: (cathode radiations are electromagnetic waves)

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (1857-1894)

Hertz obtained his PhD in 1880. At the suggestion of Helmholtz,
his thesis was on James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of
electromagnetism – a mathematical description of how
electricity, magnetism and light are the same phenomena: an
electromagnetic field carried through space by waves.

Phillip Lenard (1862-1947)

He considers that cathode radiations are electromagnetic waves
because these radiations pass through metallic foils.
 2. Electron as an elementary particle

1880 -

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz Phillip Lenard

(1857-1894) (1862-1947),
(Science Museum, London)
 2. Electron as an elementary particle

About English school: (cathode radiations have a corpuscular nature)

Joseph John Thomson (1864 -1940)

He gives to cathode radiations a corpuscular nature, because the
speed of propagation of cathode radiations is much smaller than
the light speed..

Thomson model of atom:

plum pudding model.

1895 - Jean-Baptiste Perrin (1870-1942)

His experience shows that cathode radiations are formed by particles
negatively charged.
 3. Mass of Electron
1896 - Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853 –1928), based on Zeeman’s
observations on the light behaviour inside a magnetic field,
He calculates the ratio mass/electric charge for this particle.
He demonstrates that the mass of this particle is approximately 2000
smaller than the atom of hydrogen.

1897 - J.J. Thomson

• Studying the deviation from the rectilinear trajectory of the cathode
radiation under the separated action of an electric field and a
transversal magnetic field, J.J. Thomson obtains two relations which
contain the velocity v of the constituent particles of cathode radiations
and the ration e/m between the charge and their mass.
• The value found for e/m is 770 bigger than the value corresponding to
the hydrogen ions resulted from the electrolyses e/mi.
• Admitting the fact that the charge e is the one of the monovalent ions
(Stoney’s definition), Thomson had to admit that the mass of these
negative particles is much smaller than the one of the hydrogen ions.
 3. Mass of Electron

Report of Charge/Mass of Electron

1898 – Phillip Lenard measures the ratio e/m from cathode radiations
which cross a thin metallic wall

1897-1900 – JJ Thomson and Lenard study the ratio e/m of the

electrons emitted by metals under the action of the ultraviolet
light (the photoelectric effect)

1899 - Antoine-Henri Becquerel (1852-1908) and Marie Curie

demonstrate that beta radiations emitted by radium, are
composed by high speed electrons.
 3. Mass of Electron

Report of Charge/Mass of Electron

1898-1899 - J.J. Thomson

 He compared the charge of the electrons produced inside gases
of radiation X and the electron produced by the photoelectric
effect.
 He also realises that ionising is the result of the atom separation
and that the particles emitted through the photoelectric effect
have the same ratio mass/electric charge as the particles of the
cathode radiations.

1900 - Max Planck (1858-1947)

 He developed the theory of quanta radiation:
 Certain processes are not continuously;
 The emission of energy takes place in well-determined quantities
called quanta (the Nobel Prize in 1918);
 He establishes an extraordinary exact value of the electron
charge.
 4. Measuring the electron charge

1907 - Felix Ehrenhaft (1879 –1952) - an Austrian physicist

He used the method of Wilson’s chamber:
- Method consists in observing the movement of an oil drop
which carries a small number of elementary charges and which is
submitted to gravity of a vertical electric field and to the viscosity
forces of the air where it moves.
- He obtained through measurement the value of electrical
charge of electron.

1909 - Robert Andrews Millikan (1868-1953) - The oil drop

experiment

Millikan’s experience plays an important role in the history of modern

physics.
 4. Measuring the electron charge

1909 - The oil drop experiment was performed by Robert A.

Millikan and Harvey Fletcher to measure the elementary electric
charge (the charge of the electron). It was obtained:
e= 1,602  10(-19) C.
From the obtained value for e/m = 1,759  10(11) C/kg, it results the
electron mass of value m = 9,11 .10(-31) kg. .
 5. Interpretations of the mass and form of the electron

Problems:
to determine the connection between mass and charge;
to explain the structure of the electron.

1881 - J.J. Thomson:

• an electric charge has inertia due to the electromagnetic field
which produces itself “the electromagnetic mass” of a charged
sphere – Thomson establishes that this mass varies with the
velocity, while the classical theory considered the mechanical
mass as constant.

1895 - Joseph Larmor

- He considers “the mass of any material object is nothing else than the
electromagnetic mass of electrons”.
 5. Interpretations of the mass and form of the electron

1900 - Max Abraham in Prinzipien der Dynamic des Elektrons

 He considering the electron as a non-deformable sphere;

 He introduces the notion of “electromagnetic moment”. This
notion allows explaining the fact that a radiation which falls on a
surface applies on it produces a pressure;
 From the electromagnetic moment expression, Abraham finds
the value of the electromagnetic mass of the electron
 He shows that electromagnetic mass of the electron
increases with speed, becoming infinite when the electron
speed approaches to the light speed.

These papers are connected to the development of the

THEORY OF RELATIVITY.
 5. Interpretations of the mass and form of the electron

Hendrik Antoon Lorentz finds a formula for the variation of electron

mass according to the speed.

1906 - Henri Poincaré

• He considers that the electron is in equilibrium if it is considered
as being formed by a very thin membrane, perfectly flexible
and extensible, submitted to the pressure inside.

Modern theories have renounced to establish of such a concrete

image of the electron.
 6. Applications of the electron discovery

At the beginning of the 20th century, discovering the electron makes a

solid to elaborate a unitary theory regarding:

• the electrical properties of the substances

• the process of producing the electric currents

• the propagation of the electromagnetic waves of high frequency.

 6.1. Applications: the structure and the properties of dielectrics

1837-1838 - Michael Faraday observes the phenomena of

polarization produced by the electric field inside dielectrics.

1845 - William Thomson use the notion “polarization” introduced by

Faraday

1847 – Mossoti mentioned the notion of polarisation too, in connected

to the one constant dielectric.
 6.1. Applications: the structure and the properties of dielectrics

1909 - Hendrik Antoon Lorentz in Théorie des electrons

• He uses the concept of electron in his theory concerning the electrical

properties of the materials and especially to dielectrics.

• He considers that the dielectrics contain electrical charges submitted

to some attraction forces.
• This hypothesis allows explaining the polarization by forming some
doublets under the action of the electrostatic field (electric dipoles).
These can be considered as harmonically oscillators with a proper
frequency of resonance, which can be excited by an electromagnetic
field of a close frequency.

• On the basis of this structure, with the help of Maxwell’s equations it is

possible to determine for a large domain of frequencies
- dielectric permittivity ε,
- the refraction index n
- the propagation velocity v of the electromagnetic waves.
 6.2. Applications: the electric properties of metals

19-th Century

It was already known the passing of an electric current

(movement of the electric fluid) into metals
which is not accompanied by a serious transport of material,
as opposite to what happens in the case of electrolytes.
 6.2. Applications: the electric properties of metals

1905 - Paul Karl Drude elaborates the electronic theory of metals

• The model of the electronic gas in metals:

- Like the molecules on an ideal gas, these electrons are animated
by a disordered movement due to thermal agitation;
- When applying an electric field there is an extra- movement,
ordered of the free electrons.
- The expression of electric conductivity σ as in the theory of the
ionized gases can be obtained.
• He explains also thermal conductivity λ of the metal which is
done by the electrons.
• He verifies the law experimentally obtained by Wiedemann and
Franz: λ/ = const. ,
where T represents the absolute temperature.