Engineering Physics

Course Code: BPHY101L; Course Type: Theory Only (TH)

8th November, 2021

Dr. Sandeep Chakraborty

Assistant Professor (Grade 2)
Department of Physics
School of Advanced Sciences (SAS)
Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore Campus
E-mail: sandeep.chakraborty@vit.ac.in
Phone: +91-9080717749
 Module 3: Elements of Quantum Mechanics

Course Outcome (CO): CO3

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 Module 3: Elements of Quantum Mechanics
Books: There are a plenty!!

I will jump between

Suggested by: different resources and
Physics Department, VIT, Vellore update you accordingly
Pages: 1321-1350 (Chapter 40)
My suggestions: Chapters 38,39,40,41
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 The two clouds that cast shadow on the theory of Physics at
the End of Nineteenth Century!!
The Royal Institution of Great Britain

Lord Kelvin (1824-1907)

British Mathematician and Physicist

On 27th April, 1900 Lord Kelvin gave a lecture at the Royal Institution of Great Britain on:
“Nineteenth-Century Clouds over the Dynamical Theory of Heat and Light”
The two clouds are:
1. The Black-Body emission spectrum: Birth of Quantum Mechanics
2. The results of Michelson-Morley experiment: Birth of Theory of Relativity
 Thus Black-Body Radiation occupies a central position in the history of Modern physics

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 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
 Nature of Thermal Radiation

3-types of Heat Transfer  Conduction and convection needs medium

 Radiation does not need medium
 It is this process that heat from the Sun
reaches the earth
 William Herschel, was the first person to
demonstrate that heat is a form of light
beyond the red end of the visible light
spectrum

 Heat is an electromagnetic radiation

with wavelength ranging from 1 to 100
microns
 Larger than 0.7 microns corresponding to
the red end of the visible spectrum
**Expt. Carried out in 1800
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation

Heat radiation as EM waves

 We are all familiar with the glow of a hot piece of

metal, which gives off visible light whose color
varies with the temperature of the metal, going from
red to yellow to white as it becomes hotter and
hotter.
 In fact, other frequencies to which our eyes do not
respond are present as well.

The Major Hurdle!!

 Now to quantify such a spectrum, we need to measure the amount of radiation energy
appearing at different wavelengths.
 For this we need a material that absorbs the radiation at all wavelengths completely
(perfect absorber); and upon heated, it will emit radiations of all wavelengths; i.e. it will
be a perfect emitter.
 German physicist, Gustav Robert Kirchoff, in 1860, looked at the properties of a such a
perfect material for the first time.
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
The Black Body: How to get a true black body?
 A blackbody is a theoretical idealized object described as something "absorbing all incident
radiation" commonly pictured as a cavity or empty bottle/box in which waves/photons are
bouncing back and forth between walls at a certain temperature defining the temperature of the
cavity.
 It will be a perfect emitter emitting through a tiny hole in its surrounding, radiations of all
wavelengths.
 The bottle has a little peephole through which radiation is escaping to be observed, as indicated
in the above common illustration of a blackbody.
 Since the body is at constant temperature, it is in
thermal equilibrium with its surroundings and must
absorb energy at the same rate as it emit energy.
 Hence, the cavity walls are constantly emitting and
absorbing radiation.
 We are now interested in the properties of this
radiation (blackbody radiation).
 The figure shows the excellent approximation of a
black body.
 Wilhelm Wien and Otto Lummer, in 1895,
provided this concept of a black body.
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Emission Spectrum

Note: u(λ) is the energy per unit volume (energy density)

Simulation:
https://phet.colorado.edu/sims/html/blackbody-spectrum/latest/blackbody-spectrum_en.html
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Emission Spectrum

Notice THREE important features:

1. The spectrum is continuous. It has all the wavelengths λ, from 0 to
infinity.
2. It has a defined peak at a particular wavelength.
3. The peak height increases and shifts to shorter wavelengths as the
temperature of the black body increases

Note: The visible part of the spectrum

extends from 400 nm to 700 nm.
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

A. Wien’s Displacement Law

 Wien tried to explain the features of the black body emission spectrum using the
concepts of thermodynamics
 He considered the problem of radiation confined inside a chamber of volume V, whose
walls are under adiabatic expansion.
 Because the walls of the cavity are moving, relatively, the wavelengths of the waves
reaching the surface get Doppler shifted in wavelength.
 He calculate the energy u (λ, T) emitted per unit volume per sec in unit wavelength
interval. He provided the following equation:

𝒇(𝝀𝑻)
𝒖 𝝀, 𝑻 = (1)
𝝀𝟓
Where the nature of the function „f‟ remained undetermined.
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

A. Wien’s Displacement Law

 Integrating the above equation over λ (0 to infinity), gives, U, the total energy density of
a black body.
 In literature this relation is often known as the Wien‟s law.
 Wien showed from this relation that the peak value „up‟ of „u‟ and the wavelength „λp‟ at
which this peak occurs, are related to the temperature T of the black body through the
following relations:

(2)

(3)

Where A and B are constants

Equation (2) is famously known as the Wien’s displacement law; and gives the idea of
how the wavelength peak changes with T. [1911 Nobel Prize, Wien]
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

A. Wien’s Displacement Law

 In 1900, Lummer and Pringsheim from their experiments on cavity radiation showed
that both the relations (2) and (3) of Wien agreed well with their results.
 They have also found the value of the constants.
 From this, Equation (2) can be written as:

Wien‟s Displacement Law

𝑇λ𝑝 = 2.898 × 10−3 𝑚𝐾

 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

A. Wien’s Displacement Law: Example

 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

Wien’s Law in term of Microscopic view

Inspired by the kinetic theory of gases, he cooked up through `loose' arguments an ex-
ponential form for the function `f ' and proposed in the same paper of 1896:

thus getting for u the following form:

C and D are constants

 This is often referred to as the “Wien‟s formula”

 It has been found experimentally that it agrees well with the results in the low wavelength
end of the blackbody spectrum.
 But they found out that it deviates, giving lesser values, at the higher wavelengths with
large deviations near the long wavelength tail of the spectrum.
 Need of Quantum Mechanics: Black Body Radiation
Black-Body Radiation Laws

Wien’s Law: Major Drawback 𝑇λ𝑝 = 2.898 × 10−3 𝑚𝐾

 At very low temperatures a continuous Wein‟s curve cannot be obtained. Hence Wien‟s
displacement law fails at long wavelengths.