Blackbody radiation

Derivation of Planck’s law

Engineering Physics

Dr. Hemachander Subramanian

NIT Durgapur
26 April 2020

Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/2196/ 1

Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 Some History
• In the early 1900s, people measured the spectra of various light-
emitting substances and observed several regularities in the
spectra. One regularity is that the intensity of the light emitted is low
both at the very high and very low wavelengths (or frequencies). It
had a peak in the middle. The frequency corresponding to the peak
seemed to move to higher values of frequencies as the temperature
was increased (Wein’s displacement law). You can observe this shift
in the Blackbody applet I have added in the course material.
• The theorists at the time were clueless about the origin of this shape
of the spectrum. Their theory predicted that the emission intensity
would keep increasing as one moves towards higher frequencies
(We will later see how). This is called Ultraviolet Catastrophe.

No one knew at the time, including Planck

himself, that the solution to this problem would
revolutionize physics. It was only after Einstein,
who used Planck’s result to explain
photoelectric effect, that people started to
wonder about the implications of this new
“Quantum theory”! 2
Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 Why Blackbody and not Any Body?
• Blackbody is an abstraction!
• All light-emitting bodies have discrete spectra super-imposed on a
continuous spectrum. See solar spectrum picture below. We should
not model the discrete spectra, because they are due to the particular
materials inside the light-emitting body. We only need the emission
spectra of an object whose spectrum does not depend on the
particular materials inside the object – This is a blackbody.

• Challenge: Is sodium lamp a blackbody?

Why is it called a “Black”body?

Imagine shining a torchlight on the

Blackbody. If it shines in a color that is
different from black, what would that
imply? What would that color depend on?
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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 “Classical” explanation for Blackbody Spectrum
The term “classical” above implies “before quantum mechanics”.

In general, any plot or a graph that grows first and then decays as you
move along the independent variable axis (x-axis) is a product of
two parts: A term that grows with x, and a term that decays with x.

In our case, the x-axis is frequency (or inverse wavelength) of the

emission spectrum, and the y-axis is the intensity of the spectrum
corresponding to that frequency. The classical explanation only had
the growing term, which means the intensity of the emission keeps
increasing as you increase the frequency. The “classical” physicists
derived a formula relating the intensity of emission with the
frequency, i.e.,
I(ϑ) ~ ϑa.
Here ϑ is the frequency of the emitted light. The symbol ~ means “is
proportional to”. What is the exponent “a”?

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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship – The
growing term
We have a blackbody. Let us assume that it is a cube of
length L. As you heat the blackbody cube, the electrons
in the walls begin oscillating, and since all accelerating
charges radiate EM waves, the electrons inject EM
waves into the cavity of the cube. Other electrons in the
walls absorb that radiation and re-emit them. An
equilibrium develops between the oscillating electrons
and EM waves in the cavity. If you have a small hole in
the walls of the cube, the EM waves can leak out, but not
so much to disturb the above equilibrium. Now we can
measure the emission from the hole of the blackbody.

Given this picture, how would you evaluate the intensity of

the EM waves as a function of frequency?
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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship –

https://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/legacy/normal-modes
Counting the modes
Our approach: Let us first count the number of possible frequencies of
EM waves that can exist inside the cubic blackbody.
A vibrating string of length L can support only a discrete number of
frequencies, because of the constraint that the displacement at the
ends of the string should be zero. See the attached Applet link -> for
illustration. Because the frequencies (or wavelengths) supported by
the vibrating strings are discrete, you can count them as 1,2,3… .
For a two-dimensional oscillating surface, such as the top of a
square drum, the discrete frequencies can be counted using two
integer numbers, like (m,n), where m is proportional to the frequency
of oscillation of the drum along x-direction, and n is proportional to
the frequency of oscillation of the drum along y-direction. For
example, in the (2,3) mode, the freq in x-direction is 2*f0 and in y-
direction, it is 3*f0, where f0 is some fundamental frequency.

1-D: 2-D:
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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship –
Counting the modes
For EM waves in a 3-D cube, as above, the possible frequencies are denoted by
three integers (m,n,l). The oscillation of the 3-D wave for every distinct
(m,n,l) is called a mode. Consider the three modes (2,1,1), (1,2,1), (1,1,2).
Obviously, the EM wave that is vibrating in these three distinct modes have
the same energy, because it is just the x-, y-, z- directions (represented by
the numbers) which are permuted.
The question of counting the modes can now be asked more precisely: Given a
magnitude of frequency |ϑ|, how many modes of EM waves will have a
frequency less than or equal to |ϑ| ?
The answer can be guessed quite simply if we assume that the three numbers
above represent the coefficients of a three-dimensional vector (in the
frequency space; see figure). The energy of all the modes that have the
same length of the vector will be the same! These vectors form a sphere in
the three-dimensional frequency space, since all the vectors starting from
the origin and reaching the surface of the sphere will have the same length.
Thus the number of modes with an energy E or less would just be
proportional to the volume of the sphere: i.e., the total number of modes
within a frequency |ϑ|,

Ntot ~ r3 (in frequency space), or

Ntot(ϑ) ~ ϑ3.

This technique of counting the modes through “geometrical analogy” will 7

recur through out Engineering
your science career!
Physics LectureYou better
Notes memorize it!
NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship –
Counting the modes
What about the number of modes N(ϑ) within a frequency range ϑ and ϑ+dϑ ?
From the above picture, we can easily guess that the number of modes would
be proportional to the surface area of the sphere in the frequency space. i.e.,
N(ϑ)dϑ ~ ϑ2.
Each of these modes carry an energy of 2 X ½ kBT, from the theory of
equipartition from thermodynamics (each degree of freedom should be
assigned ½ kBT; We have two degrees of freedom corresponding to two
polarization directions of EM waves).
The total energy emitted at a frequency ϑ = Number of modes within a
frequency range ϑ to ϑ+dϑ X Energy per mode.

Since all these modes on the surface of the frequency-sphere contribute equally
to the intensity (or energy) of the emission from the blackbody at the
frequency ϑ, we deduce the fact that the growing portion of the blackbody
spectrum grows like frequency-squared, ϑ2.

We see that at high frequencies, the energy of blackbody radiation grows like ϑ2,
which implies that at high frequencies the emission intensity is very high!
This is ultraviolet catastrophe! We have now derived Raleigh-Jeans law:

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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship – The decaying
term (Planck Enters)
How to make the energy of the blackbody emission decay with
frequency, theoretically?
Where was the problem in the Raleigh-Jeans derivation of the
blackbody spectrum?

While the our counting of modes within a frequency range is alright, the
energy we attributed to every mode, kBT, is problematic. We are
assigning the same energy to modes of all frequencies. Does that
intuitively make sense? NO! Infrared light just heats a surface, but
X-rays can destroy the surface! They obviously do not have the
same energy. X-rays, with higher frequencies, have much higher
energy! Planck found that he should make energy proportional to
frequency, to fit the curve of the spectrum: E = hϑ. The energy of
EM wave is proportional to its frequency.

If you are an astute reader, you should raise the following objections:
a) He could have raised the amplitude of EM waves for higher frequencies. Why did he not?
b) EM waves are SHM oscillators after all. Such oscillators’ energy goes as ϑ2, and not ϑ! Why
did he choose a linear term in frequency?!
c) How do I visualize this quantized wave? Are they localized in space?
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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
The frequency-Intensity relationship – Discrete states and
photons
This assignment, E = hϑ, is problematic! It actually increases the
energy of radiation at higher frequencies!! We need an additional
constraint. That’s why Planck said that the EM radiation is emitted in
discrete QUANTA! Or, En = nhϑ *. With this quantization
assumption, we understand that, even though the energy of a single
quantum of radiation, called a photon, is high for high frequencies,
we can play with the number of photons n, bring the total number
down, and thereby reduce the intensity of radiation at high
frequencies. Remember that the number of photons (particles) play
the role of amplitude in the continuous EM wave scenario (waves).

This “bringing the number of photons down” game can be played if we

assume that, not just the photons, but the energy levels of emitters
of photons (the SHM oscillators) themselves are quantized! (They
have to be, if you need them to emit quantized photons, right?)

* The equation is actually En = (n + ½)hϑ. The ½hϑ is called zero-point energy.

But Planck didn’t know that in 1900! Years later he added the correction. The 10
Engineering
zero point energy is why Physics
you cannot Lecture
solidify Notes NIT
Helium evenDurgapur
at zero Kelvin!!
 The frequency-Intensity relationship – The decaying
term (Planck invokes Boltzmann)
E3 = 2hϑ1

E2 = hϑ1
E1 = 0
T1 = 0 K T2 > T1 T3 > T2
Here’s the explanation for why there are less number of photons at higher frequencies. Above,
when the frequency ϑ1 is not too high (see above fig), the spacing of energy levels of the
oscillator emitting photons at that frequency is not too high as well (because the spacing
depends on the frequency). Thus more oscillators will be at a higher energy state when the
temperature is high. More photons will be emitted at that frequency. But when the frequency ϑ2 is
high (see fig below), the spacing between energy levels is large, and oscillators cannot access
the higher energy levels, which will then be populated less, thereby limiting the number of
photons emitted at that frequency.
E3 = 2hϑ2

E2 = hϑ2 ϑ2 > ϑ1

E1 = 0 11
T1 = 0 K T >Physics
Engineering
2 T 1 T > TNIT Durgapur
Lecture Notes
3 2
 The frequency-Intensity relationship – The decaying
term (Planck invokes Boltzmann)
In the previous slide, we saw the electron oscillators sitting on various energy

https://www.amazon.in/Boltzmann-Factor-Brian-Smith/dp/1938787889
levels. You have to remember that the energy levels are in fact inside these
electron oscillators. The diagram above is just an illustration to show which
electron oscillators are in which energy level. Most of the oscillators are in
the ground level, meaning, they do not have any energy to radiate out. A
few oscillators are in higher energy levels, being excited by the thermal
energy supplied by heating of the blackbody. The farther away the energy
levels are from the ground level, the less populated they are at a given
temperature, because it would take more energy to reach that level. How
much less? What is the relationship between the number of oscillators at an
excited energy level and the distance of that level from the ground level?
This is given by the Boltzmann’s factor:
NE2 / NE1 = exp( -(E2-E1) / kBT ).

If E2-E1 is the distance between the energy levels E1 and E2 , then the number
of oscillators in the higher energy level E2 is proportional to the
Boltzmann’s factor, given in the RHS of the above equation.

Think: What happens to the number of oscillators in E2 if you 12

Engineering
increase/decrease Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
the temperature?
The frequency-Intensity relationship – The decaying term
Let us get back to our original question: How much energy should you
assign to the modes of EM wave oscillation at a given frequency,
inside the blackbody? It was kBT according to classical physics,
which gave the wrong spectrum. Let us consider an oscillator inside
the blackbody that can absorb and radiate EM waves of frequency ϑ
(say, there are N such oscillators in total). This implies that this
oscillator have a series of energy levels each separated from the
one below by an energy hϑ. This oscillator can then emit one photon
of energy hϑ by transitioning from E2 to E1 (see figure below, where
each blue dot is an oscillator), two photons by transitioning from E3
to E1 , three from E4 to E1 and so on. Now, the above question can
be reframed as follows: What is the average energy of radiation from
one such oscillator (which emits at frequency ϑ)?

E3 = 2hϑ1
E2 = hϑ1
E1 = 0
T2 > T1 T3 > T2 13
T1 = 0 K
Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
The frequency-Intensity relationship – The decaying term:
Average energy per oscillator
To evaluate the average energy emitted by an oscillator oscillating at frequency
ϑ, let us imagine N oscillators inside the blackbody distributed across all
possible energy levels in accordance with the Boltzmann factor. That is, if
there are N0 oscillators in the ground level with energy E1= 0, then the
number of oscillators at energy level E2 is
NE2 = N0 exp( - hϑ / kBT ). Similarly, NE3 = N0 exp( - 2hϑ / kBT ),
NE4 = N0 exp( -3hϑ / kBT ) and so on.
The total number of oscillators N in the blackbody is just the sum all the above
numbers above: N = N0 + NE2 + NE3 + NE4 + … . The total number is
Hint: Use (1-x)-1 = 1+x+x2+x3+…
to derive this.

What is the total energy emitted by these N oscillators? N0 oscillators will not
emit anything. NE2 oscillators will emit photons of energy hϑ. NE3 oscillators
will emit two photons with energy 2hϑ and so on. Therefore the total energy is
Etot = ∑n NEn nhϑ

This implies Hint: differentiate (1-x)-1 = 1+x+x2+…

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to derive this.
Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 The frequency-Intensity relationship – Putting it all
together
Now, the average energy is just E/N. We have derived expressions for both E
and N. Substituting, we get

Substituting this term for the average energy, instead of kBT, we finally derive
the Planck’s law:

This equation accurately describes blackbody spectrum, by including both the

growing and the decaying terms. Raleigh-Jeans law isn’t entirely incorrect: It
describes the blackbody spectrum at low frequencies well. Can we
reproduce that? Expand the exponential of the decay term denominator for
small hϑ up to first order, and you will see that you will get just kBT! This
reproduces Raleigh-Jeans law.

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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 End note
The radical ideas that Planck introduced, that energy levels are quantized and
EM waves are also quantized, revolutionized physics and ushered in a
new theory, Quantum Mechanics. This new theory, counterintuitive, but
extremely successful in explaining atomic phenomena, forms the
foundation of the coming technological revolution – nanomachines to
quantum computers.

In going through this topic, we also learn that:

1) Oscillations of waves in confined lengths, areas and volumes produce
discrete frequencies – This is why energy levels inside atoms are discrete!
2) There are different modes of oscillation with the same energy – like Px, Py
and Pz orbitals of the atomic electrons.
3) You can use simple geometrical arguments to count the number of such
modes in various geometries – an application of the concept of
homeomorphism from Mathematics.
4) Applying blackbody spectrum equation on spectra of stars will give you
their surface temperature!
5) The primary evidence of Big Bang theory is something called Cosmic
Microwave Background (CMB), which also exhibits a blackbody spectrum!
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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur
 See you later!

Permanent link to this comic: https://xkcd.com/221/

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Engineering Physics Lecture Notes NIT Durgapur