Transcript

05-1-Intro to QM
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101 AvatarIntro
CHAUCER: Do you two know how scientists identify the substances in distant
stars? Do you know how we measure the composition of the sun for example?
KEVIN: Sure, one major tool is spectral analysis isnt it?
CHAUCER: Yes indeed.
DIANA: I am familiar with the results of spectral analysis, but I am a bit unsure of
how the spectra arise to begin with. Chaucer, is that part of our material for
today?
CHAUCER: Yes it is Diana, in fact it is the starting point. Lets use Professor
Peabodys WABAC Machine, since we dont have one of our own, and look at a
little science history. Jeeves?
102 Spectra
JEEVES:
Traveling to the 1750s we find that scientists were putting different substances in
flames and passing the resultant light through a prism. They found that the hot
gases given off by the burning materials emitted different colors of light or
spectra.. Ordinary table salt, for example, generated a "bright yellow" spectra.

Furthermore, not all the colors of the rainbow appeared - there were dark gaps in
the spectrum, in fact for some materials there were just a few patches of light. By
the 1820's, they recognized that spectra provided an excellent way to detect and
identify small quantities of an element in a powder put into a flame.
Meanwhile, the white light of the sun was also being examined closely. And in
1802 it was discovered that the solar spectrum itself had tiny gaps - there were
many thin dark lines in the rainbow of colors.
But the reason for the spectral lines in the light and the relationship to each
substance was a real mystery.
105 BlackBody Radiation
Traveling forward from that era to a little over 100 years ago, scientists were
examining the colors of light given off by solid heated objects, they discovered
that these hot solids gave off continuous spectra and that the overall color of the
light revealed the temperature of the object. Now this was important because
scientists realized that this discovery made it possible to measure the
temperature of an object from a distancethey could measure the temperature
of the sun for instance!
During these discoveries, they also noticed that some objects absorbed light
extremely well almost perfectly in fact.
They were called Black Bodies because they absorbed virtually all of the light
that shone upon their surfaces. These same objects also radiated almost
perfectly, and as noted before, the temperature of the black body object
determined the distribution of colors or wavelengths in the emitted light.
This curve shows how much light of each color is emitted by a cool object. As
you can see there isnt much light and what light there is mostly lies out past the
red end of the spectrum in the infrared. The figure on the right will show the
different colors added together as we progress. Right now only red light is
visible.
This curve shows how much light of each color is emitted by a medium
temperature object. And the most light is emitted in the orange-yellow-green
wavelengths. So we will add orange, yellow and green to our cauldron of light on
the right. As you can see the combination so far looks yellow.
This third curve is for a really hot object lots of light and with most of it being
emitted toward the blue end of the spectrum. And as you can see our cauldron
now is pure white in the center where all the colors overlap.
A heated black body follows this color path as the temperature rises.

A good example of black body radiation is the heat inside a kiln. Inside the kiln,
electromagnetic radiation -- light and heat -- exist in the form of standing waves
waves that, like the vibrations of a guitar string are attached at both ends.
The ends of standing waves, like the ends of the guitar string, do not move they
are anchored to the sides of the kiln. And many, many waves exist with varying
wavelengths or color.
At low temperatures, the primary color inside the kiln is in the infrared and we
cannot detect it with our naked eye. But as the temperature rises, the kiln begins
to glow red, and as the temperature continues to rise, the dominant color
changes to orange, then yellow, then bluish white.
The distribution of energy in the light shifts to SHORTER wavelengths as the
temperature rises.
110 Ultraviolet Catastrophe
But there was a problem; the scientists expected the distribution of emitted light
to continue to INCREASE at wavelengths toward the ultraviolet end of the
distribution.
It didnt. Instead there was LESS AND LESS light given off as they went further
and further into the ultraviolet. This was called the ultraviolet catastrophe, but it
wasnt a catastrophe at allit was the beginning of something remarkable.
A truly great scientist named Max Planck soon figured out a way to explain the
observation. He concluded that the energy contained in the standing waves
inside the kiln did not and could not possess just ANY AND ALL different
amounts of energy. Instead, the QUANTITY of energy these standing waves
possess had to be limited to a few specific discrete values of energy for each
color.
A standing wave of blue light for example can have energy equal to
0 electron volts or
3 electron volts or
6 electron volts or
9 electron volts (and so on)
In general

E = nhv

Energy = any whole number

n
times Plancks Constant
h
times the frequency of the light v
Which for blue light is any number times 3 electron volts

BUT NOTICE BLUE-LIGHT STANDING WAVES CANNOT CONTAIN

ENERGY EQUAL TO
1 electron volt or
2 electron volts or
4 electron volts.
Realizing that energy could have only discrete values was the beginning of
Quantum Mechanics. The energy is said to be QUANTIZEDand n from the
equation above is called a quantum number.
115-PhotoElectric Effect
Plancks conclusion that light energy is quantized was quickly used by Einstein to
explain another puzzling phenomenon. It was known that shining a light upon a
metal plate can release electrons from the plate, but the light has to have a
certain wavelength before even a single electron is released. We can shine
brighter and brighter light on the plate forever, but if the color isnt right, the
electrons stay home.
Einstein concluded that the light striking the plate had to be coming in discrete
bundles and unless a single bundle had enough energy to free an electron from
its captivity, it would remain trapped.
And as Planck had suggested, the wavelength and frequency of the light was a
measure of the amount of energy each bundle carried. So while blue light
packets might be able to free an electron, red light packets could not no matter
how many red packets hit the plate.
120-Duality
But, wait a minute. That sounds awfully like light is a particle and not a wave,
and there are mountains of data showing light behaving like a wave diffraction,
refraction, interference, etc. Which is it a particle or a wave?
It is both.
These light packets are extremely tinylets call them photons (from photos -the Greek word for light) . And when you try to explain the behavior of things this
small, you have to resort to some really unusual ideas the ideas contained in
Quantum Mechanics.