Dual nature of light

This dual nature of light appears puzzling to most students of this field, and cannot be resolved by any simple picture. From our point of view it is sufficient to consider that light is a stream of photons which travels in a straight line at constant velocity c (c = 3 X 108 ms-1). Each photon has an electric vector E and a magnetic vector H that allow interactions with electrons and nuclei through electric and magnetic forces. 

To understand the dual nature of light and the relationships among its energy, frequency, and wavelength 4.5 To write electronic configurations in a shorter notation, using the concepts of shells, subshells, and orbitals... 

Electromagnetic radiation, which was previously thought to exhibit only wave properties, seems to show certain characteristics of particulate matter as well. This phenomenon, illustrated in Fig. 12.6, is sometimes referred to as the dual nature of light. 

Dual nature of light the statement that light exhibits both wave and particulate properties. (12.2)... 

Other phenomena are best described in terms of light s particle nature (Equation 1.4). These seemingly contradictory properties are inseparable parts of the dual nature of light. Both must be taken into account when considering a simple process such as the absorption of light by matter. The above statements will surprise few readers because they have heard them many times before. But consider the experiment depicted in Figure 1.7. 

For a quantum mechanical treatment of light absorption, the dual nature of light must be taken into account. Light can be absorbed only if the excitation energy matches the photon energy, AE = hv that is, if the absorption of a photon by the molecule leads to one of the discrete excited states of the molecule (Figure 2.5). 

However, EMR behaves as a particle and as a wave (the dual nature of light) and the wavelength of such a particle, a photon, is related to energy by the equation... 

The discovery and study of the photoelectric effect, which provided evidence of the dual nature of light. 

If. The Dual Nature of Light. /The essential feature of quantum mechanics is the dualism of all the fundamental particles. At times these particles behave like forms of wave motion at other times they exhibit the ordinary properties of particles. Consider, for example, the photon. Although Einstein was forced to assume that the energy of a light wave was concentrated into corpuscles, his success in explaining the photoelectric effect in no way invalidated the old well-tested evidence that light is a form of wave motion. It is just as inconceivable that a stream of particles should show the phenomena of diffraction as that a wave should suddenly concentrate its energy at one point to knock an electron out of a surface. 

I. Introduction The Old Quantum Theory The Composition of Matter, 1. Black-Body Radiation, 1. The Photoelectric Effect, 2. Bohr s Theory of the Hydrogen Spectrum, 3. The Old Quantum Theory, 5. The Dual Nature of Light, 6. The Dual Nature of Electrons, 7. 

Chapter 10 (Modern Atomic Theory) In Chapter 10 we have expanded our treatment of the atom by adding a section on the historical development of the structure of the atom. This material on Rutherford s work will give students a better perspective on how the current model of the atom was conceived. We have also greatly expanded our treatment of light with new emphasis on the properties of waves and the dual nature of light. 

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