UNDERSTANDING LIGHT - PHOTON & WAVE CONCEPT

Light is a wave phenomenon (though this statement is not the whole story). Our best evidence for this proposition is interference, as in double slit interference & Refraction is very good evidence, too.

Out of what, is a light wave formed?

The straight answer is from "Electric & Magnetic Fields". A light wave is always formed from both electric & magnetic fields. The fields always point perpendicular to the propagation direction, that is perpendicular to direction in which light is traveling.

When light interacts with electrons, the exchange of energy occurs in a grainy fashion. The amount of energy exchanged is always hv, where 'h' denotes Planck's Constant and 'f' is the frequency of the light wave. The graininess introduces the photon.

In which way should we think of a Photon as a particle? Indeed as a "particle of light"?

a) A photon has energy, and it has momentum. these are nice particle like properties.

b) We cannot ascribe to a Photon, a definite continuous trajectory.

c) It is tempting to think of a light beam as merely a hail of Photons, but it is also incorrect. Don't do it. A wave traveling through space is better picture.

d) The graininess of light manifests itself primarily when light interacts with charged particles. Thus the Photon notion is needed primarily at the start and finish of a Light beam's travel through space.

Indeed, the Title of Einstein's " Photon" paper was this:

"On a heuristic point of view concerning the production and transformation of Light." The word "heuristic" means "stimulating discovery or further investigation" and indicates a tentativeness. More significant for us  is Einstein's specification of "Production & Transformation of Light". We should understand production to mean the emission of light. By "Transformation", Einstein meant the combination of absorption followed by emission.

And in the body of paper, Einstein devoted extensive space to the absorption of light by metals and molecules. Einstein had clearly in mind the interaction of light and electric charges when he introduced his particle theory of Light.

It is better to represent Photon as



as it reminds us the "Particle" aspect of light - The Dot; The wiggly line - "Wave" aspect of the light.

Physics is not able to provide a valid, intuitive picture of Photon, and that is why none appears in this book.

Photons and Waves are inextricably linked.

Major connections are following three

i) Energy of Photon=hv

ii) Momentum of Photon=hv/c

iii) Probability of appearance of Photon ~ square of 'E' of EM wave

Note:- The Photon idea appears on Left and Wave idea on Right.

When to use Wave concept & Photon concept?


use wave picture for describing interference, refraction, reflection and phenomena with Polaroid sheets; use the Photon idea for describing the interaction of light and electric charge, that is, for describing absorption and emission of light.

In a letter dtd. 12 Dec 1951, when Einstein was 72 years old, Einstein wrote these lines to Besso:

"The entire 50 years of deliberate pondering have not brought me closer to an answer to question "what are light quanta(i.e. Photons)? Today, every Tom, Dick and Hary believes that he knows, but he deceives himself."

Does Physicists understand light?

When it comes to equations, Physicists understand light very well indeed. For instance, theoretical calculations in 1950's laid the foundation for the first Lasers(which were constructed in early 1960's). In no way were LASERs accidental discoveries.

Providing pictures to capture the essentials of what the equations have to say is quite a different task. Sometimes a wave picture will do the job; at other times, it will not. And the same is true for Photon description. But where one description fails, the other succeeds thus there in lies the "complimentary" and for us there is a lesson in humility.

Light is a more subtle phenomenon than any single one of our everyday concepts can describe.






COLOR VISION

The image of objects is formed on light sensitive Retina in our eyes from where it is transmitted through the optical nerve to the brain. The retina has a large number of  light sensitive cells which are of two types:

i) Rods (which are Rod shaped)

ii) Cones(which are Cone shaped)

These have different functions.

The Rods are sensitive to the intensity of light and detect the degree of brightness of light. The cones are sensitive to colors of light.

They are responsible for ability of human eye to see colors.

There are infact 3 types of cones

i) one corresponding to Red
ii) one corresponding to Green
iii)one corresponding to Blue 

COLOR BY TRANSMITTED LIGHT

The colors of transparent objects is determined by colors of light transmitted by them.

A transparent red filter held against White light appears red as it absorbs all colors except Red which is transmitted to the eye.

If a Red filter is held against Green light it will appear black as it absorbs the Green light.

If a Red flower is viewed through a Green filter, it will appear black since the Red light from flower is not transmitted by Green filter.

Thumb Rule: If there is a common color in the incident light and the filter, then the filter will appear to be of common color. Otherwise it will appear black. 

Colors of objects in colored light

The color of an object as seen by us is affected by the color of light in which it is observed.

A Red flower if observed in blue light will appear black since it absorbs the blue light. It will appear black in Green light also. In Red light it will appear Red since Red light is reflected.

A magenta object when viewed in yellow light will appear Red. This is because Yellow light consists of Red and Green lights and a magneta object will absorb Green light but will reflect Red light.

Thus, if there is a common color in the incident light and the object, the object will appear to be of common color. If there is no common color, the  object will appear black.

Colors of objects in white light

The color of an opaque object depends on colors of light  reflected by it.

An object appears white in day light if it reflects all colors. 

An object appears black if it absorbs light of all colors and does not reflect any color.

An object appears Red in day light if it absorbs all the colors of white light except Red, which it reflects.

An object appears Yellow in day light if it absorbs all colors except Red and green which it reflects. These combine to produce the effect of yellow.

 

What is color addition?

The mixing of coloured lights is called colour addition. When lights of different colours are mixed, different colour effects are observed.

Primary Colors are those which combine to produce white light and which can be used to produce light of all other colours.

The three primary colours are Red, Green, and Blue.
                     Red+Green+Blue = White
                     Red+Green =Yellow
                     Red+Blue=Magenta
                     Blue+Green = Cyan
The colours Yellow, Magenta and Cyan produced when two primary colours mixed are called "Secondary Colors".

The combination of coloured lights to give different colours is represented in below figure.