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Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect extended the quantum theory which Max Planck had developed in his successful explanation of black-body radiation. Despite the greater fame achieved by his other works, such as that on special relativity, it was his work on the photoelectric effect that won him his Nobel Prize in 1921. [9]
In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper advancing the hypothesis that light energy is carried in discrete quantized packets to explain experimental data from the photoelectric effect. Einstein theorized that the energy in each quantum of light was equal to the frequency of light multiplied by a constant, later called the Planck constant. A ...
To explain the photoelectric effect, Einstein introduced the idea that light itself is made of discrete units of energy. In 1926, Gilbert N. Lewis popularized the term photon for these energy units. [3] [4] [5] Subsequently, many other experiments validated Einstein's approach. [6] [7] [8]
To explain the photoelectric effect, Albert Einstein assumed heuristically in 1905 that an electromagnetic field consists of particles of energy of amount hν, where h is the Planck constant and ν is the wave frequency.
In 1905, Albert Einstein adapted the Planck postulate to explain the photoelectric effect, but Einstein proposed that the energy of photons themselves was quantized (with photon energy given by the Planck–Einstein relation), and that quantization was not merely a feature of microscopic oscillators.
Einstein's photon had an energy proportional to its frequency and also explained an unpublished law of Stokes and the photoelectric effect. [5] This published postulate was specifically cited by the Nobel Prize in Physics committee in their decision to award the prize for 1921 to Einstein.
Einstein's paper on the photoelectric effect is sixth on this list. The following chronology of Einstein's scientific discoveries provides a context for the publications listed below, and clarifies the major themes running through his work. Einstein's scientific career can be broadly divided into two periods.
Photoelectric effect Schematic illustration of the photoemission process. Using Einstein's method, the following equations are used: energy of photon = energy needed to remove an electron + kinetic energy of the emitted electron = + where h is the Planck constant;