Photoelectric Eect

RIT alum October 6, 2011

Abstract The emission of electrons from matter upon which electromagnetic waves are incident is called the photoelectric eect. This phenomenon of emitted electrons occurs only above a threshold frequency of light. The frequency of the incident photons, and thus their energy, aect the kinetic energy of the emitted photoelectrons. With this experiment, the ratio of Plancks constant to the charge of an electron, h/e, has been experimentally calculated. Also investigated was the independence of the stopping potential on the intensity of the incident light.

Introduction
The particle-like properties and behavior of light can be seen using the photoelectric effect. It can be determined from the range of wavelengths of light used in the experiment, that the energy of a photon is independent of the intensity of the lightonly the frequency of the light matters. From the data collected during this experiment the ratio h/e, Plancks constant to the charge on Figure 1: The photoelectric eect experian electron, was found. ment vacuum and simple circuitry. be found knowing that it is equal to the work function subracted from the photons energy. Electrons can be emitted from the surface of K = Ep (1) a material (in this case, metal) when they are bombarded with energy that is greater than the work function for the metal. Such Figure 1 shows the apparatus used in this exelectrons are called photoelectrons. The ki- periment. The photoelectrons are produced netic energy of the photoelectron can then when light is incident upon the cathode

Theory

metal surface located within the tube. The electrons are emitted from the metal with some kinetic energy K. When the electrons travel to the anode, a current is measured with the ammeter. If the voltage is increased to be large enough, the ow of electrons is halted, and thus no current is produced. This voltage is called the stopping potential, Vs , and is related to the kinetic energy by the charge of the electron: K = eVs . As proposed by Max Planck, the energy of light of a frequency is h, where h is his constant. Now knowing that the kinetic energy of the electron is equivalent to the stopping potential, Equation 1 gives: eVs = h

Procedure
In this experiment, a mercury vapor lamp was chosen for a light source since the spectral emission lines of mercury are well known. The light entered the monochromator which has an adjustable grating to allow a specic wavelength to continue through to the output slit, as can be seen in Figure 2. At this output slit was mounted an evacuated photocell, a Leybold Heraeus part 55877. Before the experiment was started, the UV lter was checked and double-checked to be in place. The mercury lamp produces ultraviolet light which was blocked with plexiglass.

First, the mercury vapor lamp was lined up (2) with the input slot. Then the grating angle was adjusted until the green line was aligned with the exit slit via an index card, visually. Since the intensity of the light does not af- This was conrmed and optimized by adfect the kinetic energy of the photoelectrons, justing the grating angle slightly to nd the the stopping potential remains constant for maximum photocurrent around that point dierent intensities of light. And because with the ammeter. the stopping potential depends only on the wavelength of the light, or frequency, then the quantum theory claim is conrmed that photon energy is equivalent to h. After measurements are recorded, the plot of Vs as a function of should show a straight line with slope h/e and an intercept of /e. Vs = (h/e) /e A direct current power supply was set to 4 V and connected to a voltage divider box to allow for precise adjustment between 0 and 4 V; this is the voltage supply shown in Figure 1. Reversing the leads gave a negative supplied voltage. All voltage measurements were taken with a Fluke DVM.

Starting at 4 volts, the Keithley electrome(3) ter was set up for current measurement in amps. The electrometer was quite fussy, From this plot alone, both the work func- and measurements were taken as far away tion and the ratio of Plancks constant to as possible with minimum movement. Photocurrent versus applied voltage values were electron charge h/e can be found. 2

recorded in an Excel spreadsheet from 4 V to Results 4 V with smaller steps between 2 and 2 V. These measurements for the green line To determine the value of h/e, Equation 3 were repeated for the yellow, blue, violet, is used. Plotting V versus the frequency , s and both ultraviolet lines. the slope was then found with uncertainty, Next, the blue line was set with the as seen in Table 1. The stopping voltages monochromator and data was taken as be- found were plotted in Figure 4. fore. After this run without a lter, the procedure was repeated using a lter of optical density 0.3 placed between the light source and the entrance to the monochromator. This procedure was repeated once more, but with a lter of optical density 0.5. Theoretically the value of h/e was calculated to be 4.14 1015 V s. Experimentally, the value found was (3.9 0.3) 1015 V s by the linear t of the line on the graph done in gnuplot. The value calculated experimentally agrees with the theoretical value of h/e within the uncertainty.

For the intensity dependence, Vs was found for the blue line by way of insecting tangent Analysis lines as plotted in Figure ??. This was done for the light with with no lter, a 0.3 lter, For each wavelength of light, a plot was and a 0.5 lter. The stopping voltages are made of the photocurrent as a function of listed in Table 2 with uncertainties. voltage. From these plots, the stopping volt- The photocurrent data for the lters were age can be determined. The stopping poten- then normalized by the largest value for each tial Vs is the kink in the plot. Although Vs lter. Each new set of data points was can be visually determined from the plots, it then plotted on one graph, Figure 5. All of is more accurate to use the method of inter- the normalized data collapsed onto a single secting tangents. A tangent was t to the curve. This is conclusive proof that changdata both above and below the kink (see ing the intensity of the light changes only Figure 3), and the intersection of the tan- the magnitude of the photocurrent in direct gents was taken to be the stopping potential. This method of analysis was then repeated (1014 Hz) Vs (V) for the yellow, blue, violet, rst ultraviolet, Yellow 5.18 0.35 and second ultraviolet data, and the interGreen 5.49 0.41 section of the t line tangents was found for Blue 6.88 0.89 each. Violet 7.41 1.07 st UV For the intensity dependence, photocurrent 1 8.21 1.39 was plotted versus accelerating voltage and 2nd UV 9.58 2.08 then the method of intersecting tangent lines was used again to determine the stopping Table 1: Here are the results of the Photoelectric Stopping Voltage versus Frequency. voltage. 3

proportion, and the energy of the emitted photoelectrons is unchanged. The intensity determines the number of ejected electrons, not their energy.

References
L. Barton, 2007. Photoelectric Eect, March Figure 2: This is the monochromator for the experiment. The dotted line traces the path of the light. A crank allows for the grating angle to be changed, which in turn changes the wavelength of the light arriving at the exit slit.

http://www.phy.davidson.edu/ ModernPhysicsLabs/hovere.html http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/ classes/252/photoelectric_effect. html

No lter 0.3 lter 0.5 lter

Vs (V) 0.90 0.91 0.92

Vs (V) 0.04 0.13 0.08

Figure 3: Photocurrent versus voltage for green line.

Table 2: Stopping potentials for the blue mercury line with intensity variance. 4

Figure 4: Plot of the stopping potential as a function of the frequency of the incident light. The slope of the linear t was taken to be the constant h/e.

Figure 5: Normalized photocurrent of lter data as a function of accelerating voltage.