Chapter 35

Bohr Theory of Hydrogen

CHAPTER 35 BOHR THEORY OF
HYDROGEN
The hydrogen atom played a special role in the history
of physics by providing the key that unlocked the new
mechanics that replaced Newtonian mechanics. It
started with Johann Balmer's discovery in 1884 of a
mathematical formula for the wavelengths of some of
the spectral lines emitted by hydrogen. The simplicity
of the formula suggested that some understandable
mechanisms were producing these lines.
The next step was Rutherford's discovery of the atomic
nucleus in 1912. After that, one knew the basic
structure of atomsa positive nucleus surrounded by
negative electrons. Within a year Neils Bohr had a
model of the hydrogen atom that "explained" the
spectral lines. Bohr introduced a new concept, the
energy level. The electron in hydrogen had certain
allowed energy levels, and the sharp spectral lines
were emitted when the electron jumped from one
energy level to another. To explain the energy levels,
Bohr developed a model in which the electron had
certain allowed orbits and the jump between energy
levels corresponded to the electron moving from one
allowed orbit to another.
Bohr's allowed orbits followed from Newtonian me-
chanics and the Coulomb force law, with one small but
crucial modification of Newtonian mechanics. The
angular momentum of the electron could not vary
continuously, it had to have special values, be quan-
tized in units of Planck's constant divided by 2 , h/2 .
In Bohr's theory, the different allowed orbits corre-
sponded to orbits with different allowed values of
angular momentum.
Again we see Planck's constant appearing at just the
point where Newtonian mechanics is breaking down.
There is no way one can explain from Newtonian
mechanics why the electrons in the hydrogen atom
could have only specific quantized values of angular
momentum. While Bohr's model of hydrogen repre-
sented only a slight modification of Newtonian me-
chanics, it represented a major philosophical shift.
Newtonian mechanics could no longer be considered
the basic theory governing the behavior of particles
and matter. Something had to replace Newtonian
mechanics, but from the time of Bohr's theory in 1913
until 1924, no one knew what the new theory would be.
In 1924, a French graduate student, Louis de Broglie,
made a crucial suggestion that was the key that led to
the new mechanics. This suggestion was quickly
followed up by Schrdinger and Heisenberg who de-
veloped the new mechanics called quantum mechan-
ics. In this chapter our focus will be on the develop-
ments leading to de Broglie's idea.
35-2 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
For an electron in a circular orbit, predicting the motion
is quite easy. If an electron is in an orbit of radius r,
moving at a speed v, then its acceleration a is directed
toward the center of the circle and has a magnitude

a =
v
2
r
(2)
Using Equation 1 for the electric force and Equation 2
for the acceleration, and noting that the force is in the
same direction as the acceleration, as indicated in
Figure (2), Newton's second law gives

F = m a
e
2
r
2
= m
v
2
r
(3)
One factor of r cancels and we can immediately solve
for the electron's speed v to get v
2
= e
2
/mr, or
v
electron
=
e
mr
(4)
The period of the electron's orbit should be the distance
2r travelled, divided by the speed v, or 2r/v sec-
onds per cycle, and the frequency should be the inverse
of that, or v/2r cycles per second. Using Equation 4
for v, we get

frequency of
electron in orbit
=
v
2r
=
e
2r mr
(5)
According to Maxwell's theory, this should also be the
frequency of the radiation emitted by the electron.
THE CLASSICAL HYDROGEN ATOM
With Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus, it
became clear that atoms consisted of a positively
charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged
electrons that were held to the nucleus by an electric
force. The simplest atom would be hydrogen consist-
ing of one proton and one electron held together by a
Coulomb force of magnitude

F
e
=
e
2
r
2

p
r
F
e
F
e
e
(1)
(For simplicity we will use CGS units in describing the
hydrogen atom. We do not need the engineering units,
and we avoid the complicating factor of 1/4
0
in the
electric force formula.) As shown in Equation 1, both the
proton and the electron attract each other, but since the
proton is 1836 times more massive than the electron, the
proton should sit nearly at rest while the electron orbits
around it.
Thus the hydrogen atom is such a simple system, with
known masses and known forces, that it should be a
straightforward matter to make detailed predictions about
the nature of the atom. We could use the orbit program
of Chapter 8, replacing the gravitational force GMm/r
2
by e
2
/r
2
. We would predict that the electron moved in
an elliptical orbit about the proton, obeying all of Kepler's
laws for orbital motion.
There is one important point we would have to take into
account in our analysis of the hydrogen atom that we did
not have to worry about in our study of satellite motion.
The electron is a charged particle, and accelerated charged
particles radiate electromagnetic waves. Suppose, for
example, that the electron were in a circular orbit moving
at an angular velocity as shown in Figure (1a). If we
were looking at the orbit from the side, as shown in Figure
(1b), we would see an electron oscillating up and down
with a velocity given by v = v
0
sin t .
In our discussion of radio antennas in Chapter 32, we saw
that radio waves could be produced by moving electrons
up and down in an antenna wire. If electrons oscillated up
and down at a frequency , they produced radio waves
of the same frequency. Thus it is a prediction of Maxwell's
equations that the electron in the hydrogen atom should
emit electromagnetic radiation, and the frequency of the
radiation should be the frequency at which the electron
orbits the proton.
Figure 1
The side view of circular motion
is an up and down oscillation.
p
v
0
v = v sin(t)
a) electron in
circular orbit
b) side view of
circular orbit
0
e e
p
35-3
Electromagnetic radiation carries energy. Thus, to see
what effect this has on the electrons orbit, let us look
at the formula for the energy of an orbiting electron.
From Equation 3 we can immediately solve for the
electron's kinetic energy. The result is

1
2
mv
2
=
e
2
2r
electron
kinetic
energy
(6)
The electron also has electric potential energy just as an
earth satellite had gravitational potential energy. The
formula for the gravitational potential energy of a
satellite was

potential energy
of an earthsatellite
=
GMm
r
(10-50a)
where M and m are the masses of the earth and the
satellite respectively. This is the result we used in
Chapter 8 to test for conservation of energy (Equations
8-29 and 8-31) and in Chapter 10 where we calculated
the potential energy (Equations 10-50a and 10-51).
The minus sign indicated that the gravitational force is
attractive, that the satellite starts with zero potential
energy when r = and loses potential energy as it falls
in toward the earth.
We can convert the formula for gravitational potential
energy to a formula for electrical potential energy by
comparing formulas for the gravitational and electric
forces on the two orbiting objects. The forces are

F
gravity
=
GMm
r
2
; F
electric
=
e
2
r
2
Since both are 1/r
2
forces, we can go from the gravi-
tational to the electric force formula by replacing the
constant GMm by e
2
. Making this same substitution
in the potential energy formula gives

PE =
e
2
r
electrical potential energy
of the electronin the
hydrogenatom
(7)
Again the potential energy is zero when the particles
are infinitely far apart, and the electron loses potential
energy as it falls toward the proton. (We used this result
in the analysis of the binding energy of the hydrogen
molecule ion, explicitly in Equation 18-15.)
The formula for the total energy E
total
of the electron in
hydrogen should be the sum of the kinetic energy,
Equation 6, and the potential energy, Equation 7.

E
total
=
kinetic
energy
+
potential
energy
=
e
2
2r

e
2
r

E
total
=
e
2
2r
total energy
of electron
(8)
The significance of the minus () sign is that the
electron is bound. Energy is required to pull the
electron out, to ionize the atom. For an electron to
escape, its total energy must be brought up to zero.
We are now ready to look at the predictions that follow
from Equations 5 and 8. As the electron radiates light
it must lose energy and its total energy must become
more negative. From Equation 8 we see that for the
electron's energy to become more negative, the radius
r must become smaller. Then Equation 5 tells us that
as the radius becomes smaller, the frequency of the
radiation increases. We are lead to the picture of the
electron spiraling in toward the proton, radiating even
higher frequency light. There is nothing to stop the
process until the electron crashes into the proton. It is
an unambiguous prediction of Newtonian mechanics
and Maxwell's equations that the hydrogen atom is
unstable. It should emit a continuously increasing
frequency of light until it collapses.
p
v
a
r
F
e
e
Figure 2
For a circular orbit, both the acceleration a and the
force
F
point toward the center of the circle. Thus we
can equate the magnitudes of F and ma.
35-4 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
Energy Levels
By 1913, when Neils Bohr was trying to understand the
behavior of the electron in hydrogen, it was no surprise
that Maxwell's equations did not work at an atomic
scale. To explain blackbody radiation and the photo-
electric effect, Planck and Einstein were led to the
picture that light consists of photons rather than
Maxwell's waves of electric and magnetic force.
To construct a theory of hydrogen, Bohr knew the
following fact. Hydrogen gas at room temperature
emits no light. To get radiation, it has to be heated to
rather high temperatures. Then you get distinct spectral
lines rather than the continuous radiation spectrum
expected classically. The visible spectral lines are the
H

, H

and H

lines we saw in the hydrogen spec-

trum experiment. These and many infra red lines we
saw in the spectrum of the hydrogen star, Figure (33-
28) reproduced below, make up the Balmer series of
lines. Something must be going on inside the hydrogen
atom to produce these sharp spectral lines.
Viewing the light radiated by hydrogen in terms of
Einstein's photon picture, we see that the hydrogen
atom emits photons with certain precise energies. As
an exercise in the last chapter you were asked to
calculate, in eV, the energies of the photons in the H

,
H

and H

spectral lines. The answers are

E
H

= 1.89 eV
E
H

= 2.55 eV

E
H

= 2.86 eV (9)
The question is, why does the electron in hydrogen emit
only certain energy photons? The answer is Bohr's
main contribution to physics. Bohr assumed that the
electron had, for some reason, only certain allowed
energies in the hydrogen atom. He called these allowed
energy levels. When an electron jumped from one
energy level to another, it emitted a photon whose
energy was equal to the difference in the energy of the
two levels. The red 1.89 eV photon, for example, was
radiated when the electron fell from one energy level to
another level 1.89 eV lower. There was a bottom,
lowest energy level below which the electron could not
fall. In cold hydrogen, all the electrons were in the
bottom energy level and therefore emitted no light.
When the hydrogen atom is viewed in terms of Bohrs
energy levels, the whole picture becomes extremely
simple. The lowest energy level is at -13.6 eV. This is
the total energy of the electron in any cold hydrogen
atom. It requires 13.6 eV to ionize hydrogen to rip an
electron out.
Figure 33-28
Spectrum of a hydrogen star
13.6
3.40
1.51
.850
.544
0
n = 1
n = 2
n = 3
n = 4
n = 5

H

3.65 10 3.70 10 3.75 10 3.80 10

H9 H10 H11 H12 H13 H14 H15 H20 H30 H40
wavelength
3.85 10
5 5 5 5 5
Figure 3
Energy level
diagram for the
hydrogen atom.
All the energy
levels are given by
the simple formula
E
n
= 13.6/n
2
eV.
All Balmer series
lines result from
jumps down to the
n = 2 level. The 3
jumps shown give
rise to the three
visible hydrogen
lines.
35-5
The first energy level above the bottom is at 3.40 eV
which turns out to be (13.6/4) eV. The next level is at
1.51 eV which is (13.6/9) eV. All of the energy
levels needed to explain every spectral line emitted by
hydrogen are given by the formula

E
n
=
13.6 eV
n
2
(10)
where n takes on the integer values 1, 2, 3, .... These
energy levels are shown in Figure (3).
Exercise 1
Use Equation 10 to calculate the lowest 5 energy levels
and compare your answer with Figure 3.
Let us see explicitly how Bohr's energy level diagram
explains the spectrum of light emitted by hydrogen. If,
for example, an electron fell from the n=3 to the n=2
level, the amount of energy E
32
it would lose and
therefore the energy it would radiate would be
E
32
= E
3
E
2
= 1.51 eV ( 3.40 eV)
= 1.89 eV
=
energy lost in falling
from n = 3 to n = 2 level
(11)
which is the energy of the red photons in the H

line.
Exercise 2
Show that the
H

and
H

lines correspond to jumps to

the n = 2 level from the n = 4 and the n = 5 levels
respectively.
From Exercise 2 we see that the first three lines in the
Balmer series result from the electron falling from the
third, fourth and fifth levels down to the second level,
as indicated by the arrows in Figure (3).
All of the lines in the Balmer result from jumps down
to the second energy level. For historical interest, let us
see how Balmer's formula for the wavelengths in this
series follows from Bohr's formula for the energy
levels. For Balmer's formula, the lines we have been
calling H

, H

and H

are H
3
, H
4
, H
5
. An arbitrary
line in the series is denoted by H
n
, where n takes on the
values starting from 3 on up. The Balmer formula for
the wavelength of the H
n
line is from Equation 33-6

n
= 3.65 10
5
cm
n
2
n
2
4
(33-6)
Referring to Bohr's energy level diagram in Figure (3),
consider a drop from the nth energy level to the second.
The energy lost by the electron is ( E
n
E
2
) which has
the value

E
n
E
2
=
13.6 eV
n
2

13.6 eV
2
2
energy lost by
electron going
fromnth to
second level
This must be the energy

E H
n
carried out by the
photon in the

H
n
spectral line. Thus

E H
n
= 13.6 eV
1
4

1
n
2
= 13.6 eV
n
2
4
4n
2
(12)
We now use the formula

=
12.4 10
5
cm eV
E
photon
in eV
(34-8)
relating the photon's energy to its wavelength. Using
Equation 12 for the photon energy gives

n
=
12.4 10
5
cm eV
13.6 eV
4n
2
n
2
4

n
= 3.65 10
5
cm
n
2
n
2
4
which is Balmer's formula.
35-6 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
It does not take great intuition to suspect that there are
other series of spectral lines beyond the Balmer series.
The photons emitted when the electron falls down to
the lowest level, down to -13.6 eV as indicated in
Figure (4), form what is called the Lyman series. In this
series the least energy photon, resulting from a fall from
-3.40 eV down to -13.6 eV, has an energy of 10.2 eV,
well out in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum. All the
other photons in the Lyman series have more energy,
and therefore are farther out in the ultraviolet.
It is interesting to note that when you heat hydrogen and
see a Balmer series photon like H

, H

or H

,
eventually a 10.2 eV Lyman series photon must be
emitted before the hydrogen can get back down to its
ground state. With telescopes on earth we see many
hydrogen stars radiating Balmer series lines. We do not
see the Lyman series lines because these ultraviolet
photons do not make it down through the earth's
atmosphere. But the Lyman series lines are all visible
using orbiting telescopes like the Ultraviolet Explorer
and the Hubble telescope.
Another series, all of whose lines lie in the infra red, is
the Paschen series, representing jumps down to the
n = 3 energy level at -1.55 eV, as indicated in Figure (5).
There are other infra red series, representing jumps
down to the n = 4 level, n = 5 level, etc. There are many
series, each containing many spectral lines. And all
these lines are explained by Bohr's conjecture that the
hydrogen atom has certain allowed energy levels, all
given by the simple formula E
n
= (13.6/n
2
) eV.
This one simple formula explains a huge amount of
experimental data on the spectrum of hydrogen.
Exercise 3
Calculate the energies (in eV) and wavelengths of the 5
longest wavelength lines in
(a) the Lyman series
(b) the Paschen series
On a Bohr energy level diagram show the electron
jumps corresponding to each line.
Exercise 4
In Figure (33-28), repeated 2 pages back, we showed
the spectrum of light emitted by a hydrogen star. The
lines get closer and closer together as we get to H
40
and
just beyond. Explain why the lines get closer together
and calculate the limiting wavelength.
13.6
3.40
1.51
.850
.544
0
n = 1
n = 2
n = 3
n = 4
n = 5

Figure 4
The Lyman series
consists of all jumps
down to the 13.6eV
level. (Since this is as
far down as the
electron can go, this
level is called the
ground state.)
Figure 5
The Paschen series
consists of all jumps
down to the n = 3
level. These are all in
the infra red.
1.51
.850
.544
0
n = 3
n = 4
n = 5
.378
n = 6
.278 n = 7
35-7
Lym
a
n
s
e
r
i
e
s
B
a
l
m
e
r
s
e
r
i
e
s
P
a
s
c
h
e
n
s
e
r
i
e
s
r
2
r
1
r
3
THE BOHR MODEL
Where do Bohr's energy levels come from? Certainly
not from Newtonian mechanics. There is no excuse in
Newtonian mechanics for a set of allowed energy
levels. But did Newtonian mechanics have to be
rejected altogether? Planck was able to explain the
blackbody radiation formula by patching up classical
physics, by assuming that, for some reason, light was
emitted and absorbed in quanta whose energy was
proportional to the light's frequency. The reason why
Planck's trick worked was understood later, with
Einstein's proposal that light actually consisted of
particles whose energy was proportional to frequency.
Blackbody radiation had to be emitted and absorbed in
quanta because light itself was made up of these quanta.
By 1913 it had become respectable, frustrating per-
haps, but respectable to modify classical physics in
order to explain atomic phenomena. The hope was that
a deeper theory would come along and naturally ex-
plain the modifications.
What kind of a theory do we construct to explain the
allowed energy levels in hydrogen? In the classical
picture we have a miniature solar system with the
proton at the center and the electron in orbit. This can
be simplified by restricting the discussion to circular
orbits. From our earlier work with the classical model
of hydrogen, we saw that an electron in an orbit of
radius r had a total energy E(r) given by

E(r) =
e
2
2r
total energy of
an electron in
a circular orbit
of radius r
(8 repeated)
If the electron can have only certain allowed energies
E
n
= 13.6/n
2
eV, then if Equation (8) holds, the
electron orbits can have only certain allowed orbits of
radius r
n
given by

E
n
=
e
2
2r
n
(13)
The r
n
are the radii of the famous Bohr orbits. This
leads to the rather peculiar picture that the electron can
exist in only certain allowed orbits, and when the
electron jumps from one allowed orbit to another, it
emits a photon whose energy is equal to the difference
in energy between the two orbits. This model is
indicated schematically in Figure (6).
Exercise 5
From Equation 13 and the fact that E
1
= 13.6eV,
calculate the radius of the first Bohr orbit r
1
. [Hint: first
convert eV to ergs.] This is known as the Bohr radius
and is in fact a good measure of the actual radius of a
cold hydrogen atom. [The answer is
r
1
=.529 10
8
cm=.529A

.] Then show that r

n
=n
2
r
1
.
Figure 6
The Bohr orbits are determined by
equating the allowed energy
E
n
= 13.6
n
2 13.6
n
2
to the energy E
n
= e
2
2r
n
e
2
2r
n
for an electron in an orbit of radius

r
n
.
The Lyman series represents all jumps
down to the smallest orbit, the Balmer
series to the second orbit, the Paschen
series to the third orbit, etc. (The radii in
this diagram are not to scale, the radii r
n
increase in size as
n
2
, as you can easily
show by equating the two values for E
n
.)
35-8 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
Angular Momentum in the Bohr Model
Nothing in Newtonian mechanics gives the slightest
hint as to why the electron in hydrogen should have
only certain allowed orbits. In the classical picture
there is nothing special about these particular radii.
But ever since the time of Max Planck, there was a
special unit of angular momentum, the amount given
by Planck's constant h. Since Planck's constant keeps
appearing whenever Newtonian mechanics fails, and
since Planck's constant has the dimensions of angular
momentum, perhaps there was something special about
the electron's angular momentum when it was in one of
the allowed orbits.
We can check this idea by re expressing the electron's
total energy not in terms of the orbital radius r, but in
terms of its angular momentum L.
We first need the formula for the electron's angular
momentum when in a circular orbit of radius r. Back
in Equation 4, we found that the speed v of the electron
was given by
v =
e
mr
(4 repeated)
Multiplying this through by m gives us the electron's
linear momentum mv

mv =
me
mr
= e
m
r
(14)
The electron's angular momentum about the center of
the circle is its linear momentum mv times the lever
arm r, as indicated in the sketch of Figure (7). The result
is

L = mv r = e
m
r
r
= e mr
(15)
where we used Equation 14 for mv.
The next step is to express r in terms of the angular
momentum L. Squaring Equation 13 gives
L
2
= e
2
mr
or

r =
L
2
e
2
m
(16)
Finally we can eliminate the variable r in favor of the
angular momentum L in our formula for the electron's
total energy. We get
total energy
of the electron
E =
e
2
2r
=
e
2
2 L
2
e
2
m L
2
e
2
m
=
e
2
2
e
2
m
L
2
=
e
4
m
2L
2
(17)
In the formula e
4
m/2L
2
for the electron's energy,
only the angular momentum L changes from one orbit
to another. If the energy of the nth orbit is E
n
, then
there must be a corresponding value L
n
for the angular
momentum of the orbit. Thus we should write

E
n
=
e
4
m
2L
n
2
(18)
v
L = mvr
r
m
Figure 7
Angular momentum of a particle
moving in a circle of radius r.
35-9
At this point, Bohr had the clue as to how to modify
Newtonian mechanics in order to get his allowed
energy levels. Suppose that angular momentum is
quantized in units of some quantity we will call L
0
. In
the smallest orbit, suppose it has one unit, i.e.,
L
1
= 1 L
0
. In the second orbit assume it has twice as
much angular momentum, L
2
= 2 L
0
. In the nth orbit
it would have n units

L
n
= nL
0
quantization
of angular
momentum
(19)
Substituting Equation 19 into Equation 18 gives

E
n
=
e
4
m
2L
2
0
1
n
2
(20)
as the total energy of an electron with n units of angular
momentum. Comparing Equation 20 with Bohr's
energy level formula

E
n
= 13.6 eV
1
n
2
(10 repeated)
we see that we can explain the energy levels by
assuming that the electron in the nth energy level has n
units of quantized angular momentum L
0
. We can also
evaluate the size of L
0
by equating the constant factors
in Equations 10 and 20. We get
e
4
m
2L
0
2
= 13.6 eV (21)
Converting 13.6 eV to ergs, and solving for L
0
gives
e
4
m
2L
0
2
= 13.6 eV 1.6 10
12
ergs
eV
With e = 4.8 10
10
esu and m = .911 10
27
gm
in CGS units, we get

L
0
= 1.05 10
27
gm cm
2
sec
(22)
which turns out to be Planck's constant divided by 2 .

L
0
=
h
2
=
6.63 10
27
gm cm/sec
2
= 1.05 10
27
gm cm
sec
This quantity, Planck's constant divided by 2 , ap-
pears so often in physics and chemistry that it is given
the special name h bar and is written h

h
h
2
"h bar" (23)
Using h for L
0
in the formula for E
n
, we get Bohr's
formula

E
n
=
e
4
m
2h
2
1
n
2
(24)
where
e
4
m/2h
2
, expressed in electron volts, is 13.6 eV.
This quantity is known as the Rydberg constant.
[Remember that we are using CGS units, where e is in
esu, m in grams, and h is erg-sec.]
Exercise 6
Use Equation 21 to evaluate L
0
.
Exercise 7
What is the formula for the first Bohr radius in terms of the
electron mass m, charge e, and Planck's constant h.
Evaluate your result and show that
r
1
=.51 10
8
cm=.51A

. (Answer: r
1
=h
2
/e
2
m.)
Exercise 8
Starting from Newtonian mechanics and the Coulomb
force law F =e
2
/r
2
, write out a clear and concise deriva-
tion of the formula

E
n
=
e
4
m
2h
2
1
n
2
Explain the crucial steps of the derivation.
A day or so later, on an empty piece of paper and a clean
desk, see if you can repeat the derivation without
looking at notes. When you can, you have a secure
knowledge of the Bohr theory.
35-10 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
Exercise 9
An ionized helium atom consists of a single electron
orbiting a nucleus containing two protons as shown in
Figure (8). Thus the Coulomb force on the electron has
a magnitude

F
e
=
e 2e
r
2
=
2e
2
r
2

e
2e
a) Using Newtonian mechanics, calculate the total
energy of the electron. (Your answer should be e
2
/r .
Note that the r is not squared.)
b) Express this energy in terms of the electron's angular
momentum L. (First calculate L in terms of r, solve for
r, and substitute as we did in going from Equations 16
to 17.)
c) Find the formula for the energy levels of the electron
in ionized helium, assuming that the electron's angular
momentum is quantized in units of h.
d) Figure out whether ionized helium emits any visible
spectral lines (lines with photon energies between 1.8
eV and 3.1 eV.) How many visible lines are there and
what are their wavelengths?)
Exercise 10
You can handle all single electron atoms in one calcu-
lation by assuming that there are z protons in the
nucleus. (z = 1 for hydrogen, z = 2 for ionized helium,
z = 3 for doubly ionized lithium, etc.) Repeat parts a), b),
and c) of Exercise 9 for a single electron atom with z
protons in the nucleus. (There is no simple formula for
multi electron atoms because of the repulsive force
between the electrons.)
DE BROGLIE'S HYPOTHESIS
Despite its spectacular success describing the spectra
of hydrogen and other one-electron atoms, Bohr's
theory represented more of a problem than a solution.
It worked only for one electron atoms, and it pointed to
an explicit failure of Newtonian mechanics. The idea
of correcting Newtonian mechanics by requiring the
angular momentum of the electron be quantized in
units of h, while successful, represented a bandaid
treatment. It simply covered a deeper wound in the
theory. For two centuries Newtonian mechanics had
represented a complete, consistent scheme, applicable
without exception. Special relativity did not harm the
integrity of Newtonian mechanicsrelativistic New-
tonian mechanics is a consistent theory compatible
with the principle of relativity. Even general relativity,
with its concepts of curved space, left Newtonian
mechanics intact, and consistent, in a slightly altered
form.
The framework of Newtonian mechanics could not be
altered to include the concept of quantized angular
momentum. Bohr, Sommerfield, and others tried
during the decade following the introduction of Bohr's
model, but there was little success.
In Paris, in 1923, a graduate student Louis de Broglie,
had an idea. He noted that light had a wave nature, seen
in the 2-slit experiment and Maxwell's theory, and a
particle nature seen in Einstein's explanation of the
photoelectric effect. Physicists could not explain how
light could behave as a particle in some experiments,
and a wave in others. This problem seemed so incon-
gruous that it was put on the back burner, more or less
ignored for nearly 20 years.
De Broglie's idea was that, if light can have both a
particle and a wave nature, perhaps electrons can too!
Perhaps the quantization of the angular momentum of
an electron in the hydrogen atom was due to the wave
nature of the electron.
The main question de Broglie had to answer was how
do you determine the wavelength of an electron wave?
Figure 8
Ionized helium has a
nucleus with two protons,
surrounded by one electron.
35-11
An analogy with photons might help. There is, how-
ever, a significant difference between electrons and
photons. Electrons have a rest mass energy and pho-
tons do not, thus there can be no direct analogy between
the total energies of the two particles. But both particles
have mass and carry linear momentum, and the amount
of momentum can vary from zero on up for both
particles. Thus photons and electrons could have
similar formulas for linear momentum.
Back in Equation 34-13 we saw that the linear momen-
tum p of a photon was related to its wavelength by the
simple equation

=
h
p
de Broglie
wavelength
(34-13)
De Broglie assumed that this same relationship also
applied to electrons. An electron with a linear momen-
tum p would have a wavelength = h/p . This is now
called the de Broglie wavelength. This relationship
applies not only to photons and electrons, but as far as
we know, to all particles!
With a formula for the electron wavelength, de Broglie
was able to construct a simple model explaining the
quantization of angular momentum in the hydrogen
atom. In de Broglie's model, one pictures an electron
wave chasing itself around a circle in the hydrogen
atom. If the circumference of the circle, 2r did not
have an exact integral number of wavelengths, then the
wave, after going around many times, would eventu-
ally cancel itself out as illustrated in Figure (9).
But if the circumference of the circle were an exact
integral number of wavelengths as illustrated in Figure
(10), there would be no cancellation. This would
therefore be one of Bohr's allowed orbits shown in
Figure (6).
Suppose (n) wavelengths fit around a particular circle
of radius r
n
. Then we have
n = 2r
n
(25)
Using the de Broglie formula = h/p for the electron
wavelength, we get

n
h
p
= 2r
n
(26)
Multiplying both sides by p and dividing through by
2 gives

n
h
2
= pr
n
(27)
Now h/2 is just h, and pr
n
is the angular momentum
L
n
(momentum times lever arm) of the electron. Thus
Equation 27 gives
nh = pr
n
= L
n
(28)
Equation 28 tells us that for the allowed orbits, the
orbits in which the electron wave does not cancel, the
angular momentum comes in integer amounts of the
angular momentum h. The quantization of angular
momentum is thus due to the wave nature of the
electron, a concept completely foreign to Newtonian
mechanics.
r
Figure 9
De Broglie picture of an
electron wave cancelling
itself out.
Figure 10
If the circumference of the orbit is
an integer number of wavelengths,
the electron wave will go around
without any cancellation.
Figure 10a--Movie
The standing waves on a
circular metal band nicely
illustrate de Broglies waves
35-12 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
When a graduate student does a thesis project, typically
the student does a lot of work under the supervision of
a thesis advisor, and comes up with some new, hope-
fully verifiable, results. What do you do with a student
that comes up with a strange idea, completely unveri-
fied, that can be explained in a few pages of algebra?
Einstein happened to be passing through Paris in the
summer of 1924 and was asked if de Broglie's thesis
should be accepted. Although doubtful himself about
a wave nature of the electron, Einstein recommended
that the thesis be accepted, for de Broglie just might be
right.
In 1925, two physicists at Bell Telephone Laboratories,
C. J. Davisson and L. H. Germer were studying the
surface of nickel by scattering electrons from the
surface. The point of the research was to learn more
about metal surfaces in order to improve the quality of
switches used in telephone communication. After
heating the metal target to remove an oxide layer that
accumulated following a break in the vacuum line, they
discovered that the electrons scattered differently. The
metal had crystallized during the heating, and the
peculiar scattering had occurred as a result of the
crystallization. Davisson and Germer then prepared a
target consisting of a single crystal, and studied the
peculiar scattering phenomena extensively. Their ap-
paratus is illustrated schematically in Figure (11), and
their experimental results are shown in Figure (12). For
their experiment, there was a marked peak in the
scattering when the detector was located at an angle of
50 from the incident beam.
Davisson presented these results at a meeting in Lon-
don in the summer of 1927. At that time there was a
considerable discussion about de Broglie's hypothesis
that electrons have a wave nature. Hearing of this idea,
Davisson recognized the reason for the scattering peak.
The atoms of the crystal were diffracting electron
waves. The enhanced scattering at 50 was a diffrac-
tion peak, a maximum similar to the reflected maxima
we saw back in Figure (33-19) when light goes through
a diffraction grating. Davisson had the experimental
evidence that de Broglie's idea about electron waves
was correct after all.
electron gun
detector

nickel crystal
electron
beam

=
5
0

Figure 11
Scattering electrons from the
surface of a nickel crystal.
Figure 12
Plot of intensity vs. angle for electrons scattered by a
nickel crystal, as measured by Davisson and Germer.
The peak in intensity at 50 was a diffraction peak
like the ones produced by diffraction gratings. (The
intensity is proportional to the distance out from the
origin.)
Reflected
maximum
transmitted
maximum
Figure 33-19
Laser beam
impinging on
a diffraction
grating.
35-13
Index
Symbols
13.6 eV, hydrogen spectrum 35-4
A
Allowed orbits, Bohr theory 35-1
Angular momentum
Bohr model 35-1, 35-8
Planck's constant 35-8
Atoms
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
B
Balmer series
Energy level diagram for 35-6
Formula from Bohr theory 35-5
Hydrogen spectrum 35-4
Bell Telephone Lab, electron waves 35-12
Bohr model
Allowed orbits 35-1
Angular momentum 35-1, 35-8
Chapter on 35-1
De Broglie explanation 35-1
Derivation of 35-8
Energy levels 35-4
Planck's constant 35-1, 35-8
Quantum mechanics 35-1
Rydberg constant 35-9
Bohr orbits, radii of 35-7
C
CGS units
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Circular orbit, classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Coulomb's law
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
D
Davisson & Germer, electron waves 35-12
De Broglie
Electron waves 35-11
Formula for momentum 35-11
Hypothesis 35-10
Key to quantum mechanics 35-1
Wavelength, formula for 35-11
Waves, movie of standing wave model 35-11
E
Electromagnetic radiation
Energy radiated by classical H atom 35-3
Electron
In classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Electron scattering
First experiment on wave nature 35-12
Electron waves
Davisson & Germer experiment 35-12
De Broglie picture 35-11
Scattering of 35-12
Energy
Electric potential energy
In classical hydrogen atom 35-3
Energy level 35-1
Kinetic energy
Bohr model of hydrogen 35-3
Classical hydrogen atom 35-3
Total energy
Classical H atom 35-3
Energy level diagram
Balmer series 35-6
Bohr theory 35-4
Lyman series 35-6
Paschen series 35-6
F
Force
Electric force
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
H
h bar, Planck's constant 35-9
Hydrogen atom
Bohr theory 35-1
Classical 35-2
Hydrogen atom, classical
Failure of Newtonian mechanics 35-3
Hydrogen spectrum
Balmer series 35-4
Lyman series 35-6
Of star 35-4
Paschen series 35-6
I
Infrared light
Paschen series, hydrogen spectra 35-6
K
Kinetic energy
Bohr model of hydrogen 35-3
Classical hydrogen atom 35-3
L
Light
Hydrogen spectrum
Balmer formula 35-5
Spectral lines, hydrogen
Bohr theory 35-4
Lyman series, energy level diagram 35-6
35-14 Bohr Theory of Hydrogen
M
Maxwell's equations
Failure of
In classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Mechanics
Newtonian
Classical H atom 35-3
Momentum
De Broglie formula for momentum 35-11
Movie
Standing De Broglie like waves 35-11
N
Newtonian mechanics
Classical H atom 35-3
Failure of
In the classical hydrogen atom 35-3
Nucleus
Discovery of, Rutherford 35-1
O
Orbits
Bohr, radii of 35-7
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
P
Particle-wave nature
De Broglie picture 35-10
Of electrons
Davisson and Germer experiment 35-12
De Broglie picture 35-10
Paschen series
Energy level diagram 35-6
Hydrogen spectra 35-6
Photon
Hydrogen spectrum 35-5
Planck's constant
Angular momentum, Bohr model 35-8
Bohr theory 35-1
In de Broglie wavelength formula 35-11
Potential energy
Electric potential energy
In classical hydrogen atom 35-3
Q
Quantized angular momentum
In Bohr theory 35-9
In de Broglie's hypothesis 35-10
Quantum mechanics
Bohr theory of hydrogen 35-1
R
Radiation
Radiated energy and the classical H atom 35-3
Radio waves
Predicted from the classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Rutherford and the nucleus 35-1
Rydberg constant, in Bohr theory 35-9
S
Satellite motion
Classical hydrogen atom 35-2
Scattering of waves
Davisson-Germer experiment 35-12
Spectral lines
Hydrogen
Bohr theory of 35-4
Spectrum
Hydrogen
Bohr theory of 35-4
Lyman series, ultraviolet 35-6
Paschen series, infrared 35-6
Hydrogen star 35-4
Standing waves
De Broglie waves
Movie 35-11
Star
Hydrogen spectrum of 35-4
T
Total energy
Classical hydrogen atom 35-3
U
Unit of angular momentum
In Bohr theory 35-9
W
Wave
De Broglie, standing wave movie 35-11
Electron waves, de Broglie picture 35-11
Wavelength
De Broglie 35-11
X
x-Ch35
Exercise 1 35-5
Exercise 2 35-5
Exercise 3 35-6
Exercise 4 35-6
Exercise 5 35-7
Exercise 6 35-9
Exercise 7 35-9
Exercise 8 35-9
Exercise 9 35-10
Exercise 10 35-10