Compton Effect

Compton Effect?
Explanation of Compton Effect

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 Compton Effect
Compton Effect
In 1922 Arthur H. Compton directed a beam of X-rays at a solid
target and measured the wavelength and intensities of the
radiation scattered from the target (Fig.1). He discovered that
some of the scattered radiation has longer wavelength than the
incident radiation and that the change in wavelength depends on
the angle through which the radiation is scattered shown in Fig 2.

Fig.1: A Compton-effect experiment.

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 Compton Effect

Fig.2: Scattered x-ray intensity versus wavelength

for Compton scattering at different angles

Compton explained the scattering of X-rays radiation by an

electron using the particle nature of radiation. This scattering
phenomenon is known as Compton Effect.
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 Compton Effect
Explanation of Compton Effect
Compton explained his experimental results using Einstein’s
photon theory along with the principles of conservation of
energy and momentum. Fig. 3 shows a Schematic diagram of
Compton scattering

Fig.3: Schematic diagram of Compton

effect

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 Compton Effect
Consider
The incident photon has momentum 𝑝 with magnitude p and
energy 𝑝𝑐
The scattered photon has Momentum 𝑝′ with magnitude 𝑝′ and
energy 𝑝′ 𝑐
The electron is initially at rest, so its initial momentum is zero
and its initial energy is its rest energy 𝑚𝑐 2
The final electron momentum 𝑝𝑒 has magnitude 𝑝𝑒
and the final electron energy is given by 𝐸𝑒2 = 𝑚𝑐 2 2 + 𝑝𝑒 𝑐 2
Then energy conservation gives us the relationship
𝑝𝑐 + 𝑚𝑐 2 = 𝑝′ 𝑐 + 𝐸𝑒 ………………(1)
Or, 𝑝𝑐 − 𝑝′ 𝑐 + 𝑚𝑐 2 2 = 𝐸𝑒2 …………(2)
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 Compton Effect
Or, 𝑝𝑐 − 𝑝′ 𝑐 + 𝑚𝑐 2 2 = 𝑚𝑐 2 2 + 𝑝𝑒 𝑐 2 …………(3)
From Fig.3 Momentum conservation gives
𝑝 = 𝑝′ + 𝑝𝑒
Or, 𝑝𝑒 = 𝑝 − 𝑝′ ……………….(4)
By taking the scalar product of each side of Eqn.(4) with itself,
we find
𝑝𝑒 . 𝑝𝑒 = 𝑝 − 𝑝′ . 𝑝 − 𝑝′
′2
Or, 𝑝𝑒 = 𝑝 + 𝑝 − 2𝑝𝑝′ 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑 …………………..(5)
2 2

We now substitute this expression for 𝑝𝑒2 into Eq. (3) and
multiply out the left side. We divide out a common factor 𝑐 2
several terms cancel, and when the resulting equation is divided
through by 𝑝𝑝′ the result is

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 Compton Effect
𝑚𝑐 𝑚𝑐
− = 1 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑 ……………………..(6)
𝑝′ 𝑝
Finally, we, by substituting 𝑝′ = ℎ 𝜆′ and 𝑝 = ℎ 𝜆 then multiply
by ℎ 𝑚𝑐, obtain
′ ℎ
𝜆 −𝜆 = 1 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑 ,
𝑚𝑐
𝜆′ − 𝜆 = 𝜆𝑐 1 − 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝜑 ,…………………..(7)
ℎ
Where 𝜆′ − 𝜆 is called Compton shift The quantity𝜆𝑐 = 𝑚𝑐 has
units of length called Compton wavelength.

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 Compton Effect
When the wavelengths of X-rays scattered at a certain angle are
measured, the curve of intensity per unit wavelength as a function
of wavelength has two peaks (Fig. 2). The longer-wavelength
peak represents Compton scattering. The shorter-wavelength
peak, labeled 𝜆0 is at the wavelength of the incident X-rays and
corresponds to X-rays scattering from tightly bound electrons. In
such scattering processes the entire atom must recoil, so the m in
Eq. (7) is the mass of the entire atom rather than of a single
electron. The resulting wavelength shifts are negligible.