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Quantum Mechanics: Dr. B. M. Krishna Mariserla

1. Early theories explained light as either particles or waves, but experiments showed it has properties of both. 2. Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light as electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. 3. Planck hypothesized that light energy is quantized in packets called photons, explaining blackbody radiation. 4. De Broglie associated wavelengths with all particles, proven by electron diffraction experiments. 5. Even single photons exhibit wave-like interference over time, showing the dual particle-wave nature of light.

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Gulzaar Channiwala
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44 views

Quantum Mechanics: Dr. B. M. Krishna Mariserla

1. Early theories explained light as either particles or waves, but experiments showed it has properties of both. 2. Maxwell unified electricity, magnetism, and light as electromagnetic waves traveling at the speed of light. 3. Planck hypothesized that light energy is quantized in packets called photons, explaining blackbody radiation. 4. De Broglie associated wavelengths with all particles, proven by electron diffraction experiments. 5. Even single photons exhibit wave-like interference over time, showing the dual particle-wave nature of light.

Uploaded by

Gulzaar Channiwala
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Quantum Mechanics

[PHL6030]

Dr. B. M. Krishna Mariserla

DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS, IIT JODHPUR


What is light?
In the late 1600’s Newton explained many of
the properties of light by assuming it was
made of particles.

”Tis true, that from my theory I argue the corporeity of


light; but I do it without any absolute positiveness…”

“The waves on the surface of I’m


stagnating water, passing by the thinking
sides of a broad obstacle which waves.
stops part of them, bend afterwards
Because of and dilate themselves gradually into
the quiet water behind the obstacle.
Newton’s But light is never known to follow
enormous crooked passages, nor to bend into
prestige, his the shadow.”

support of the
particle theory of In 1678 Christian Huygens
light tended to argued that light was a pulse
suppress other traveling through a medium,
points of view. or as we would say, a wave.
Light must be
In 1803 Thomas Young’s double slit experiment showed that, much like waves!

water waves, light diffracts and produces an interference pattern.

=2dsin
“…it seems we have strong reason to
conclude that light itself is an
electromagnetic disturbance in the form of
waves propagated through the
electromagnetic field according to
electromagnetic laws.”

In the 1860’s Maxwell, building on Faraday’s


work, developed a mathematical model of
electromagnetism. He was able to show that
these electromagnetic waves travel at the
speed of light.
I don’t like that! In 1900 Max Planck was able to
explain the spectrum of a
“blackbody” radiator by assuming
that light energy is quantized.
That quantum of light energy was
later named a photon.

E=hf That quantum


of light energy

E=hf+
seems
particle-like!

A few years
later, in 1905,
Einstein used
Planck’s idea to
explain the
photoelectric
effect.
=h/p
Louis de Broglie, in
“It would seem that the basic 1923, reasoned that if
idea of the quantum theory light waves could
is the impossibility of
imagining an isolated behave like particles
quantity of energy without then particles should
associating with it a certain have a wavelength.
frequency.”
Electron diffraction
Davisson-Germer experiment:

• In order to test de Broglie’s


hypothesis that matter behaved like
waves, Davisson and Germer set up
an experiment very similar to what
might be used to look at the
interference pattern from x-rays
scattering from a crystal surface.
The basic idea is that the planar
nature of crystal structure provides
scattering surfaces at regular
intervals, thus waves that scatter
from one surface can constructively
or destructively interfere from waves
that scatter from the next crystal
plane deeper into the crystal.

They know the e- speed thus know the deBroglie 


Electron diffraction
Results of Davisson-Germer experiment:
Proof of deBroglie

Maxima observed
For e-. Diffraction
pattern.

Can calc  using position


of min & max.

 agrees with deBroglie 


from equation.
Electrons and Matter Waves:

In 1909 G.I. Taylor experimented with a


very dim light source. His work, and
many modern experiments show that
even though only one photon passes
through a double slit, over time, an Single-electron double-slit
interference pattern is still produced - interference pattern.
one “particle” at a time.
Diffraction and uncertainty
• When a photon passes through a narrow slit, its momentum becomes uncertain and the photon can
deflect to either side. By limiting the size vertical space to the slit width a, the vertical (y) momentum
becomes uncertain according to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: xp  
2

• Each photon lands with some uncertainty, but a diffraction pattern is the result of many photons hitting
the screen. The pattern appears even if only one photon is present at a time in the experiment. the
pattern is not a consequence of interference between two photons. Each photon interferes with itself.

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