Problem 3: (Photoelectric eect) a) Describe in a few short sentences what aspect

Question

Problem 3: (Photoelectric eect)

a) Describe in a few short sentences what aspects of the photoelectric eect cannot be explained with the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation.

b) Draw a sketch of the typical dependence of the photocurrent on the accelerating voltage. Describe which features of the graph will change with increasing the intensity of the illumination, and which will change with increasing the frequency of the light.

c) Pick one particular quantity from part (b), and describe quantitatively how it will change with frequency or intensity of illumination. Take all materials constants as known (e.g. the work function)

I need help with part b and c since I'm a bit lost on how to interpret increasing intensity on the graph.

Explanation / Answer

1) The first and foremost draw back of classical electromagnetic theory is that the time taken by the wave to eject the elctron. According to the wave theory, the energy of wave will be equally shared by all the electrons. If this is the case then the electrons will be ejected after many years from the atom. However, experimentally one can observe that the electrons are emitted with in a very short interval of time i.e of the order of micro seconds.

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