Radiation

Blackbody

All material objects emit electromagnetic radiation at a temperature above absolute zero. The
radiation represents a conversion of a body's thermal energy into electromagnetic energy, and is
therefore called thermal radiation. Conversely all matter absorbs electromagnetic radiation to
some degree. An object that absorbs all radiation falling on it at all wavelengths is called a
blackbody.
It is well known that when an object, such as a lump of metal, is heated, it glows; first a dull
red, then as it becomes hotter, a brighter red, then bright orange, then a brilliant white. Although
the brightness varies from one material to another, the color (strictly spectral distribution) of the
glow is essentially universal for all materials, and depends only on the temperature. In the
idealized case, this is known as blackbody, or cavity, radiation. At low temperatures, the
wavelengths of thermal radiation are mainly in infrared. As temperature increases, objects begin
to glow red.
The concept of the blackbody is an idealization, as perfect blackbodies do not exist in nature.
Experimentally, blackbody radiation may
be measured as the steady state
equilibrium radiation from a cavity in a
rigid body. A good approximation of
black body absorption is a small hole
leading to the inside of a hollow object.

A closed oven of graphite walls at a constant temperature with a small hole on one side produces a
good approximation to ideal blackbody radiation emanating from the opening. Blackbody radiation
becomes a visible glow of light if the temperature of the object is high enough. At 1000 K, the
opening in the graphite oven looks red; at 6000 K, it looks white. No matter how the oven is
constructed, or of what material, as long as it is built such that almost all light entering is absorbed, it
will be a good approximation to a blackbody, so the spectrum, and therefore color, of the light that
comes out will be a function of the cavity temperature alone.
 Classical physics suggested that all modes had an equal chance of being produced, and that the
number of modes went up proportional to the square of the frequency. The predicted continual
increase in radiated energy with frequency was named “the ultraviolet catastrophe” (Fig.1):

(a)

(b)
Fig. 1: The amount of radiation as a function of wavelength (a) and frequency (b) of
thermal radiation: classical (Rayleigh-Jeans Law) and quantum (Planck Law)
theories/ (http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/mod6.html).

Theory
The energy of blackbody radiation varies with temperature and wavelength. As the
temperature increases, the peak of the intensity of blackbody radiation shifts to lower
wavelengths. This explains why heated objects change appearance from not appearing at all
(low temperature, infrared emission) to glowing red (peak in visible at the red end of the
spectrum). The shift was found to obey the Wien’s displacement law:

(1)

where: λ max is the wavelength of the peak and T is the absolute temperature of the emitting object.

Fig.2: Wien’s displacement law (from http://www.electrical4u.com/black-body-radiation/ ).

Another experimental fact is that the amount of energy the heated object emits increases with
temperature as in Stefan-Boltzmann Law:

P/A = I = ε·σ·T 4 (2)

where: P is power; A is the surface area of the body; I is the intensity of radiation at the object
surface, ε is the emissivity of the surface of the body, and σ is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant,
which is listed along with other universal constants in any textbook in Physics. For the majority
of objects, ε < 1, and they are called “grey bodies”, while ε = 1 for the blackbody.

Blackbody radiation is emitted in the form of a spectrum, where intensity is a function of

frequency or wavelength. Intensity emitted in a unit of solid angle in the wavelength interval dλ
can be conveniently defined as: I (λ, T) dλ. In the classical model of blackbody radiation, the
Rayleigh- Jeans Law takes into account that cavity atoms are modeled as oscillators emitting
electromagnetic waves of all wavelengths:

where k is Boltzmann’s constant and c is the speed of light in free space. However, only at long
wavelengths, the Rayleigh-Jean Law is in a good agreement with experimental data (Fig.1a); the
intensity approaches infinity as λ approaches zero, which condition is called the “ultraviolet
catastrophe”. In 1900 Planck derived a formula for blackbody radiation which is in total agreement
with experimental data (Fig. 1). The intensity of radiation emitted by a body is given by Planck's
Radiation Law:
where h = 6.062x10-34 J·s is the Planck's constant, k is the Boltzmann's constant, and T is
the
absolute temperature of the body, and λ is the wavelength of the radiation. At long
wavelengths,
(4) reduces to the Rayleigh-Jean expression (3) and at short wavelengths it predicts an
exponential decrease in intensity with decreasing λ.

Planck’s main assumption was based on the idea that marked the birth of quantum theory,
namely that energy is emitted only indiscrete energy values, or quants: En= nhν =
nhc/, where n is an integer, h is a constant (later called the Planck’s constant), c is
the speed of light, ν is the frequency of radiation and  is the wavelength.

The total intensity radiated within all wavelengths in all direction is given by the Stefan-
Boltzmann Law (2) by integrating Eq. (4) over the total solid angle and λ from zero to
infinity.

Many commonly encountered light sources, including the sun and incandescent light
bulbs, are closely modeled as "blackbody" emitters.
Photoelectric Effect

In 1899, J.J. Thomson discovered that when a metal target is irradiated by ultraviolet light it
emits negative charges. These charges were found to have the same charge/mass ratio as the
electron. This effect was named the photoelectric effect, and the emitted electrons called
photoelectrons. To explain the effect, a mechanism was proposed by which the energy in the
oscillating electric field of the UV light was continuously transferred to the bound electrons.
Electrons that had absorbed more than a certain amount of energy characteristic of the metal
Eo, (called the work function), would be discharged with a kinetic energy (Ek) equal to the
difference between the total energy absorbed by the electron (Ee) and the work function (Eo):
Ek = Ee - Eo (1)

This explanation was based on Maxwell’s very successful theory of light. In Maxwell’s theory
the energy present in electromagnetic fields is distributed continuously throughout the spatial
extent of the field and is proportional to intensity of the field (the square of the field). One
corollary of this explanation was that if metal was irradiated by very dim light, it would take a
while for the electrons to absorb energy equal to Eo and therefore the discharge would be
delayed slightly.

Shortly after the discovery of this effect Philip Lenard performed the first systematic study of
the photoelectric effect. He used a glass vacuum chamber with two electrodes configured as an
anode and cathode, and a window to allow light to shine on the cathode surface. By using an
ammeter Lenard was able to measure the photocurrent as a function of the intensity and
frequency of the light. By varying the potential difference (ΔV) between cathode and anode
Lenard could measure the kinetic energy of the photoelectrons ejected from the cathode.
Lenard made a number of observations which appeared to be at odds with the originally
proposed explanation.
1) Current is proportional to the intensity of the irradiating light.
2) Current appears without delay regardless of the dimness of the irradiating light source.

3) Photoelectrons are emitted only if the frequency of the irradiating light source exceeds a
threshold frequency fo. The value of fo appears to be characteristic of the type of cathode
metal.
4) If the potential difference ΔV is made negative (electrons are decelerated as they approach
the anode) the current decreases until it becomes zero (at ΔV=Vstop). Vstop is called the
stopping potential and it is independent of the intensity of the irradiating light source but
dependent on the frequency of the source. An electron with kinetic energy Ek ejected by
the cathode will be prevented from reaching the anode by a stopping voltage
Vstop= Ek / e (2)

Einstein’s interpretation

In his famous 1905 paper Einstein noted that

“The usual conception that the energy of light is continuously distributed over the space
through which it propagates encounters very serious difficulties when one attempts to explain
the photoelectric effect…”
To explain the observations made by Lenard, Einstein argued that the energy associated with
the electromagnetic field was not continuous; it didn’t just “flow into” the electrons at a rate
proportional to the intensity. Instead, he postulated that it possessed a sort of granularity,
arriving in packets of size
E=hf, (3)
where h = 6.63×10-34 J⋅s is Planck’s constant and f is the frequency of light. In the presence of
quantized electromagnetic radiation an electron can escape from a metal if hf ≥ Eo where any
excess energy becomes the kinetic energy of the ejected electron. If we assume the intensity of
the light is not high enough for electrons to have a very high chance of absorbing more than a
single photon then we can combine (1), (2), and (3) to obtain Einstein’s equation for the
photoelectric effect:

eVstop = hf - Eo (4)

Or in terms of
frequency: Vstop = (h/e)[f - fo] (5)
It is clear from equation (5) that a graph of Vstop vs f provides a way to measure Planck’s
constant h and the cutoff (or threshold) frequency fo.
Serbanescu, R. (2013), Blackbody Radiation, Article
Sinclair, J. (2017), Photoelectric Effect, Article