How does Einsteins explanation of the photons explain the effect of varying intensity of light in the Photoelectric effect?

The Photoelectric Effect - when a material emits electrons from its surface as it's exposed to incident light. It might be expected that an increase in light intensity would increase the KE of the emitted electrons but this is actually not the case, classically this can not be explained but Einstein showed this could be understood using an idea that light is quantised in bundles called photons, where the energy of said electron is given by: E=hf. This allows us to understand that each time an electron is emitted from the surface of the material all of its energy has come from a single photon. From this we can say that an increase of light intensity will increase the amount of photons incident on the surface per unit time thus increasing the amount of emitted electrons per unit time but each electron has absorbed the same amount of energy from the individual photons.

Answered by James B. Physics tutor

1410 Views

See similar Physics A Level tutors

Related Physics A Level answers

All answers ▸

How can I find out the Young's modulus of a material?


A geostationary satellite is orbiting Earth, a) What is meant by a geostationary orbit? b) Calculate the height at which the satellite orbits above the surface of the Earth. The radius of the Earth is 6400km and its mass is 6x10^24 kg.


Why does an absorption spectrum (of eg Helium) show dark lines?


Explain Newton’s law of Gravitation


We're here to help

contact us iconContact usWhatsapp logoMessage us on Whatsapptelephone icon+44 (0) 203 773 6020
Facebook logoInstagram logoLinkedIn logo

© MyTutorWeb Ltd 2013–2024

Terms & Conditions|Privacy Policy
Cookie Preferences