How does the photoelectric effect support the particle model?
1 Answer
The photoelectric effect is the observation that many metals emit electrons when light shines upon them.
According to classical electromagnetic theory, this effect can be attributed to the transfer of energy from the light to an electron in the metal.
From this perspective, an alteration in either the intensity or wavelength of light would induce changes in the rate of emission of electrons from the metal. Furthermore, according to this theory, a sufficiently dim light would be expected to show a time lag between the initial shining of its light and the subsequent emission of an electron.
However, the experimental results did not correlate with either of the two predictions made by classical theory.
Instead, electrons are only dislodged by the impingement of photons when those photons reach or exceed a threshold frequency. Below that threshold, no electrons are emitted from the metal regardless of the light intensity or the length of time of exposure to the light.
To make sense of the fact that light can eject electrons even if its intensity is low, Albert Einstein proposed that a beam of light is not a wave propagating through space, but rather a collection of discrete wave packets (photons).
