QUANTUM PHYSICS AND WAVE MECHANICS

What is Quantum Physics?

• It’s the physics that explains how everything works: the best
description we have of the nature of the particles that make up
matter and the forces with which they interact.

• The basic mathematical framework that underpins it all, which

was first developed in the 1920s by Niels Bohr, Werner
Heisenberg, Erwin Schrödinger and others.

• It characterizes simple things such as how the position or

momentum of a single particle or group of few particles changes
over time.
• Three different quantum field theories deal with
three of the four fundamental forces by which
matter interacts:
• electromagnetism, which explains how atoms hold
together;
• the strong nuclear force, which explains the
stability of the nucleus at the heart of the atom;
• and the weak nuclear force, which explains why
some atoms undergo radioactive decay.
1. QUANTA OF RADIATION:
• All the various forms of electromagnetic radiation, including light, have a dual
nature.
• When traveling through space, they act like waves and give rise to interference and
diffraction effects.
• But when electromagnetic radiation interacts with atoms and molecules, the beam
acts like a stream of energy corpuscles called photons or light-quanta.
• The energy € of each photon depends upon the frequency f (or wavelength of the
radiation:

Where h = 6.626 x is a constant of nature called Planck’s constant.

2. PHOTOELECTRIC EFFECT:

• When electromagnetic radiation is incident on the surface of

certain metals electrons may be ejected.
• A photon of energy hf penetrates the material and is absorbed
by an electron.
• If enough energy is available, the electron will be raised to the
surface and ejected with some kinetic energy, .
• Depending on how deep in the material they are, electrons
having a range of values of KE will be emitted.
• Let be the energy required for an electron to break free of the
surface, the so-called work function.
• For electrons up near the surface to begin with, an
amount of energy (hf - will be available and this is the
maximum kinetic energy that can be imparted to any
electron.
• Accordingly, Einstein’s photoelectric equation is

• The energy of the ejected electron may be found by

determining what potential difference must be applied to
stop its motion; then
where is called the stopping potential.
• For any surface, the radiation must be of short enough
wavelength so that the photon energy hf is large
enough to eject the electron.
• At the threshold wavelength (or frequency), the
photo’s energy just equals the work function.
• For ordinary metals the thresholds wavelength lies in
the visible or ultraviolet range. X-rays will eject
photoelectrons readily; far- infrared photons will not.
3. THE MOMENTUM OF A PHOTON:

• Because when
Hence, since

The momentum of a photon is

4. COMPTON EFFECT:
• A photon can collide with a particle having mass, such as an
electron.
• When it does so, the scattered photon can have a new energy and
momentum.
• If a photon of initial wavelength collides with a free, stationary
electron of mass and is deflected through an angle then its scattered
wavelength is increased to where

• The fractional change in wavelength is very small except for high

energy radiation such as X-rays or
5. DE BROGILE WAVES:

• A particle of mass moving with momentum has associated with it a

• A beam of particles can be diffracted and can undergo interference

phenomena.
• These wavelike properties of particles can be computed by assuming the
particles to behave like waves having the de Broglie wavelength.
6. Resonance of De Broglie Waves:
• A particle that is confined to a finite region of space is said to be
bound particle.
• Typical examples of bound-particle systems are a gas molecule
in a closed container and an electron in an atom.
• The de Broglie wave that represents a bound particle will
undergo resonance within the confinement region if the
wavelength fits properly into the region.
• Each possible resonance from a stationary state of the system.
• The particle is most likely to be found at the positions of the
antinodes of the resonating wave; it is never found at the
positions of the nodes.
7. QUANTIZED ENERGIES:

• For bound particles arise because each resonance

situation has a discrete energy associated with it.
• Since the particle is likely to be found only in a
resonance state, its observed energies are discrete
(quantized) .
• Only in atomic (and smaller) particle systems are the
energy differences between resonance states large
enough to be easily observable.
TERMS:

1. nm - In the International System of Units, the prefix "nano" means

one-billionth, or 10-9; therefore one nanometer is one-billionth of a
meter.
2. Planck’s constant - = h
3. eV = electron volt, unit of energy commonly used in atomic and
nuclear physics, equal to the energy gained by an electron (a charged
particle carrying unit electronic charge) when the electrical potential
at the electron increases by one volt. The electron volt equals 1.602
× 10−12 erg, or 1.602 × 10−19 joule.
4. The mass of an electron is 9.11×kg.
SOLVED PROBLEMS:
1.Show that the photons in a 1240 nm infrared light
beam have energies of 1.00 eV.
2. Compute the energy of a photon of blue light
of wavelength 450 nm.

=
3. To break a chemical bond in the molecules of
human skin and thus cause sunburn, a photon
energy of about is required. To what wavelength
does this correspond?

=
4. What wavelength must electromagnetic radiation have if a
photon in the beam is to have the same momentum as an
electron moving with a speed of 2.00 x

The requirement is that = From this,

5. A photon strikes an electron at rest and rebounds at an angle of to its
original direction. Find the speed and wavelength of the photon after the
collision.

The speed of a photon is always the speed of light in vacuum, c. To

obtain the wavelength after collision, we use the equation for the Compton
effect:

+
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