Determination of Planck’s Constant using LEDs

Objective: To determine the value of Planck’s constant using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs).

Apparatus Required: DC voltage source, LEDs (different colors), breadboard, resistor, ammeter, voltmeter

Theory and Experimental Setup:

In 1900, Max Planck published a paper to explain the blackbody radiation. Max Planck based this paper on the
idea that the energy emitted by a resonator is in discrete values or in quanta of energy. One quanta of energy is
given by 𝐸 = h𝜈 , where 𝜈 is the frequency of photon, h is the Planck’s constant. Max Planck theoretically
obtained the value of h as 6.55x10-34 J-s. The value of h obtained using high precision experiment in present day
is 6.626 x 10-34 J-s. There are many experiments to obtain the Planck’s constant, but the simplest one that can be
performed in lab is through the use of light emitting diode (LEDs).

LED is a p-n junction diode made up of a direct bandgap semiconductor material. LED is easy to fabricate, cost-
effective, and requires low power supply but at the cost of low optical power, incoherent and broad spectra. LEDs
are used in applications such as display device and optical signal generator for optical communication. In forward-
biased mode the electrons and holes into the p-side and n-side, respectively. The injected minority carriers
recombine with the majority charges in the depletion region to emit photons. The energy of emitted photon
corresponds to the energy gained by the carrier in the forward-biased mode. When the forward-bias voltage is
sufficient to overcome the potential barrier, a constant current is maintained through the diode. The voltage at
which there is sharp increase in the current in the I-V characteristics is called the knee-voltage.

ℎ𝜈 = 𝑒𝑉 (1)

ℎ𝑐
= 𝑒𝑉 (2)
𝜆

ℎ𝑐
𝜆𝑉 = (3)
𝑒

𝜆𝑉𝑒
ℎ= (4)
𝑐

where 𝜈 and 𝜆 are the frequency and wavelength of the emitted photon; 𝑒 is the electronic charge and 𝑉 is the
knee voltage of the LED. The value of Planck’s constant is obtained from Eq. (4).

Fig. 1: Circuit diagram for the measurement of Planck’s constant

For your reference:

Wavelength of different LEDs

S. No. Color Wavelength (in nm)

1 Yellow 576

2 Green 548

3 Blue 350

4 Red 620

Experimental Procedure:

1) Connect the electrical circuit on a breadboard. Ensure that the voltage supply is not switched ON and
the voltage knob is at minimum.
2) Switch ON the variable voltage source.
3) Increase the source voltage using the ‘Fine’ knob.
4) Note down the voltage and current across the LED.
5) Continue increasing the source voltage and take the readings till you obtain a sharp rise in the current.
6) Plot the I-V characteristics and find the knee voltage.
7) Perform Step 1-6 for 3-4 different LED color.
8) Plot knee voltage vs 1/𝜆 and obtain the slope of the line.

Observation Table:

I-V Characteristics

S. No. V (in Volts) I (in µA)

Knee voltage vs 1/wavelength

S. No. Vknee (in Volts) 1/𝜆 (in m-1)

Results:

Precautions:

Sources of Error: