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The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons from a material caused by electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physics, solid state, and quantum chemistry to draw inferences about the properties of atoms, molecules and ...
Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect extended the quantum theory which Max Planck had developed in his successful explanation of black-body radiation. Despite the greater fame achieved by his other works, such as that on special relativity, it was his work on the photoelectric effect that won him his Nobel Prize in 1921. [9]
Classical optics long preceded the discovery that light is quantized, when Albert Einstein famously explained the photoelectric effect in 1905. Optics tools include the refracting lens, the reflecting mirror, and various optical components and instruments developed throughout the 15th to 19th centuries.
To explain the photoelectric effect, Albert Einstein assumed heuristically in 1905 that an electromagnetic field consists of particles of energy of amount hν, where h is the Planck constant and ν is the wave frequency.
The quantization of the photoelectric effect and now the quantization of the electron orbits set the stage for the final revolution. Throughout the first and the modern era of quantum mechanics the concept that classical mechanics must be valid macroscopically constrained possible quantum models.
This formula defines the photoelectric effect. Not every photon which encounters an atom or ion will photoionize it. The probability of photoionization is related to the photoionization cross-section, which depends on the energy of the photon and the target being considered. For photon energies below the ionization threshold, the ...
The photoelectric effect was further evidence of this quantization as explained by Albert Einstein in a 1905 paper, a discovery for which he was to be awarded the Nobel Prize in 1921. Niels Bohr showed that the hypothesis of optical radiation being quantized corresponded to his theory of the quantized energy levels of atoms , and the spectrum ...
1905 – Einstein explains the photoelectric effect by extending Planck's idea of light quanta, or photons, to the absorption and emission of photoelectrons. Einstein would later receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery, which launched the quantum revolution in physics.