FISIKA KUANTUM

Bab I. Wave as Particles

3. Compton Scattering

I. Waves as Particles:
1. Blackbody Radiation 2. Photoelectric Effect

3.Compton Scattering

3. Compton Scattering

X-rays

The Compton Effect

The Compton effect is the scattering of a photon off of an electron thats initially at rest. if the photon has enough energy (X-ray energies or higher), the scattering behaves like an elastic collision between particles
the energy and momentum of the system is conserved

Classical Elastic Scattering

To calculating what happens, we use the same principles as before for an elastic collision, however, the fact that one particle is mass less (the photon) has some strange consequences.
If the two particles were massive, wed had the situation we studied before. Note in particular:
no deflection angle since particle 2 is at rest, the problem reduces to a one dimensional collision the velocity of particle 1 will change after the impact, and if m2>m1, particle 1 will get scattered backwards

Compton Scattering
Since the photon is mass less, it always moves at the speed of light.
the photon does loose momentum and energy during the collision (giving it to the electron), consequently its wavelength decreases. the reason there is a deflection angle, is that otherwise it would be impossible for the system to conserve both energy and linear momentum.

The Collision of Particle

Classical Elastic Scattering

Compton Scattering

The Compton Effect

In 1924, A. H. Compton performed an experiment where X-rays impinged on matter, and he measured the scattered radiation.

X-rays

The Compton Experiment

Incident X-ray wavelength l1

M A T T E R

Scattered X-ray wavelength l2

e

l2 > l1

Electron comes flying out

Problem
According to the wave picture of light, the incident Xray should give up some of its energy to the electron, and emerge with a lower energy (i.e., the amplitude is lower), but should have l2 = l1. It was found that the scattered X-ray did not have the same wavelength?

Quantum Picture to the Rescue

Incident X-ray E1 = hc / l1
Electron initially at rest (almost)

Scattered X-ray E2 = hc / l2

e e

l2 > l1

Ee
Compton found that if you treat the photons as if they were particles of zero mass, with energy E=hc/l and momentum p=h/l The collision behaves just as if it were 2 billiard balls colliding ! Photon behaves like a particle with energy & momentum as given above!

Compton Scattering Data

Compton Scattering Data

Calculating The Compton Effect

Calculating the Compton effect:
The incident photon has frequency f, hence wavelength l=c/f The photon is scattered into an angle q, and in the process its frequency changes to f (and correspondingly l=c/f) The electron is initially at rest, and afterwards gains a velocity v. The angle at which the electron is scattered is q
l
v

q'
l'

Conservation of Energy

1 2 hf hf mev 2

Conservation of Momentum

Conservation of momentum in the x direction

h cos(q ) mev cos(q ' ) l l'

Conservation of Momentum

Conservation of momentum in the y direction

h 0 sin(q ) mev sin(q ' ) l'

The Compton Effect

The preceding is a rather messy set of equations to solve here is the key result:

h 1 cosq l 'l me c

The Compton Wavelength of the Electron

h 1 cosq l 'l me c

The quantity h/mec is called the Compton wavelength of the electron, and has a value of 2.43x10-12m.

Energies of a photon at 500 keV and an electron after Compton scattering

Example
In a Compton scattering experiment, the incident xrays have a wavelength of 0.2685 nm, while the scattered x-rays have a wavelength of 0.2703 nm. Through what angle are the x-rays scattered?

The Scatter of Lights from Charged Particles

From the wave theory, we can understand that charged particles would interact with the light since the light is an electromagnetic wave. But the actual predictions of how the light scatters from the charged particles does not fit our simple wave model.

Compton Scattering
If we consider the photon idea of light, some of the photons would hit the charged particles and bounce off. The laws of conservation of energy and momentum should then predict the scattering.

Energy and Momentum After Collision

As we know Photons have momentum as well as energy. The scattered photons will have less energy and less momentum after collision with electrons, and so should have a larger wavelength according to the formula:

l = lscattered - lincident = (h/mc)[1cos(q)]

Plancks Constant & Compton Scattering

Note that Plancks constant is in this relation as well, and gives a further experimental way of getting this value. Again, the photon theory provides a nice explanation of a phenomenon involving light.

Maximum Change of Wavelength

Note that the maximum change in wavelength is (for scattering from an electron): 2h/mc = 2(6.63 x 10-34 J-s) / (9.1 x 10-31 kg * 3 x 108 m/s) = 4.86 x 10-12 m Which would be insignificant for visible light but NOT for x-ray and -ray light.

Scattering Problem
Incident X-ray wavelength
Electron initially at rest

lf

li1.5 [nm]

KE=0.2 [keV]
Before After

Compute the energy of the 1.5 [nm] X-ray photon. E = hc/l = (6.6x10-34 [J s])(3x108 [m/s]) / (1.5x10-9 [m]) = 1.3x10-16 [J]

Scattering Example (cont)

Express this energy in [keV]. 1.3x10-16 [J] * (1 [eV] / 1.6 x10-19 [J]) = 825 [eV] = 0.825 [keV]

What is the magnitude of the momentum of this photon?

p = E / c = 0.825 [keV] / c = 0.825 [keV/c] After the collision the electrons energy was found to be 0.2 [keV]. What is the energy of the scattered photon?
A) 0.2 [keV] B) 0.625 [keV] C) 1.025 [keV] D) 0.825 [keV]

Since energy must be conserved, the photon must have E=0.825-0.2 = 0.625 [keV]

What would be the wavelength of the scattered photon? HW exercise !

Compton Scattering Application

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Radiobiology
Compton scattering is of prime importance to radiobiology, as it happens to be the most probable interaction of high energy X rays with atomic nuclei in living beings and is applied in radiation therapy.

Material Physics
In material physics, Compton scattering can be used to probe the wave function of the electrons in matter in the momentum representation.

Gamma Spectroscopy
Compton scattering is an important effect in gamma spectroscopy which gives rise to the Compton edge, as it is possible for the gamma rays to scatter out of the detectors used. Compton suppression is used to detect stray scatter gamma rays to counteract this effect.

Inverse Compton Scattering

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Inverse Compton scattering

Inverse Compton scattering is important in astrophysics. In X-ray astronomy, the accretion disk surrounding a black hole is believed to produce a thermal spectrum. The lower energy photons produced from this spectrum are scattered to higher energies by relativistic electrons in the surrounding corona. This is believed to cause the power law component in the X-ray spectra (0.2-10 keV) of accreting black holes.

Inverse Compton scattering

The effect is also observed when photons from the cosmic microwave background move through the hot gas surrounding a galaxy cluster. The CMB photons are scattered to higher energies by the electrons in this gas, resulting in the SunyaevZel'dovich effect. Observations of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect provide a nearly redshift-independent means of detecting galaxy clusters.