![]() The spectrometer consists of a rotating framework with a calcite crystal to diffract the x-rays and an ionization chamber for detection of the x-rays. These were scattered from a block of carbon and observed at different angles with a Bragg spectrometer. The compton's original experiment made use of molybdenum K-alpha x-rays, which have a wavelength of 0.0709 nm. The scattered photon has lower energy and therefore a longer wavelength according to Planck’s relationship" .īy that time the photoelectric effect suggested that light consisted of particles was really debated. The shift of the wavelength increased with scattering angle according to the Compton formula:Ĭompton explained and modeled the data by assuming a particle (photon) nature for light and applying conservation of energy and conservation of momentum to the collision between the photon and the electron. The Compton effect was observed by Arthur Compton in 1922, by observing the "scattering of x-rays from electrons in a carbon target, and finding scattered x-rays with a longer wavelength than those incident upon the target. The compton effect (also known as compton scattering) is the result of a high-energy photon colliding with a target, which releases loosely bound electrons from the outer shell of the atom or molecule. His experiment involved scattering photons off electrons and offered proof for what we now refer to as the Compton effect. ![]() ComptonĪlthough Max Planck and Albert Einstein postulated that light could behave as both a wave and a particle, it was Arthur Compton who finally proved that this was possible. He gave the first theory of wave propagation, showing, among other things how they could be built up from ‘elementary wavelets’, radiated in circular patterns from multiple sources. Refraction could be understood if the waves traveled more slowly in a dense medium (like waves in shallow water). ![]() He argued that the known properties of light, such as refraction, reflection and propagation in straight lines, could be understood by assuming that light was a wave in some invisible medium, analogous to waves moving in a fluid. He demonstrated how waves might interfere to form a wavefront, propagating in a straight line. However Huyghens on the other hand thought of light as a wave, his most important contribution to science by far was his wave theory of light. Still, light particles were acted upon by an invisible aether. For various reasons he favoured a particle theory of light – the explanation of light propagating in straight lines, except at interfaces, was then easily understood. However this work provided no theory of how light worked, and Newton made attempts at this for many years. Newton was interested in light from very early on in his career, the work that first brought him to the attention of the scientific community was his experimental investigation of colour, and his invention of the ‘Newtonian’ reflecting telescope (published in 1672). The modern duality about the nature of light starts from Huygens - Newton duality about the nature of light, "when Christiaan Huygens and Isaac Newton proposed competing theories of light: light was thought either to consist of waves (Huygens) or of particles (Newton)" . He asserted that these rays were composed of particles of light. On the other hand, Democritus-the original atomist-argued that all things in the universe, including light, are composed of indivisible sub-components (light being some form of solar atoms)" .Īt the beginning of the 11th Century, the Arabic scientist Alhazen wrote the first comprehensive treatise on optics, describing refraction, reflection, and the operation of a pinhole lens via rays of light traveling from the point of emission to the eye. "Aristotle was one of the first to publicly hypothesize about the nature of light, proposing that light is a disturbance in the element aether (that is, it is a wave-like phenomenon). The duality about the nature of light has been there for a long time, but the ideas about the nature of light has been the topic for discussion even before that duality existed. This article discuss how the compton effect proved that the light could be observed as particles and that the wave theory has failed in explaining the behaviour of light in all manners. ![]() Most physicists accept wave-particle duality as the best explanation for a broad range of observed phenomena however, it is not without controversy. Wave–particle duality is an ongoing conundrum in modern physics. ![]()
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