PROPAGATION OF LIGHT

The exact nature of light is not fully understood, although people have been studying the subject for many centuries. In the 1700s and before, experiments seemed to indicate that light was composed of particles. In the early 1800s, a physicist Thomas Young showed that light exhibited wave characteristics.

Further experiments by other physicists culminated in James Clerk (pronounced Clark) Maxwell collecting the four fundamental equations that completely describe the behavior of the electromagnetic fields. James Maxwell deduced that light was simply a component of the electromagnetic spectrum. This seems to firmly establish that light is a wave. Yet, in the early 1900s, the interaction of light with semiconductor materials, called the photoelectric effect, could not be explained with electromagnetic-wave theory.

The advent of quantum physics successfully explained the photoelectric effect in terms of fundamental particles of energy called quanta. Quanta are known as photons when referring to light energy.

Today, when studying light that consists of many photons, as in propagation, that light behaves as a continuum - an electromagnetic wave. On the other hand, when studying the interaction of light with semiconductors, as in sources and detectors, the quantum physics approach is taken. The wave versus particle dilemma can be addressed in a more formal way, but that is beyond the scope of this text. It suffices to say that much has been reconciled between the two using quantum physics. In this manual, we use both the electromagnetic wave and photon concepts, each in the places where it best matches the phenomenon we are studying.

The electromagnetic energy of light is a form of electromagnetic radiation.

Light and similar forms of radiation are made up of moving electric and magnetic forces. A simple example of motion similar to these radiation waves can be made by dropping a pebble into a pool of water. In this example, the water is not actually being moved by the outward motion of the wave, but rather by the up-and-down motion of the water. The up-and-down motion is transverse, or at right angles, to the outward motion of the waves. This type of wave motion is called transverse-wave motion. The transverse waves spread out in expanding circles until they reach the edge of the pool, in much the same manner as the transverse waves of light spread from the sun. However, the waves in the pool are very slow and clumsy in comparison with light, which travels approximately 186,000 miles per second.

Light radiates from its source in all directions until it is absorbed or diverted by some substance (fig. 2-1). The lines drawn from the light source (a light bulb in this instance) to any point on one of the transverse waves indicate the direction that the wavefronts are moving. These lines, are called light rays.

Figure 2-1. - Light rays and wavefronts from a nearby light source.

Although single rays of light typically do not exist, light rays shown in illustrations are a convenient method used to show the direction in which light is traveling at any point. A ray of light can be illustrated as a straight line.

Q.1 Quantum physics successfully explained the photoelectric effect in terms of fundamental particles of energy called quanta. What are the fundamental particles of energy (quanta) known as when referring to light energy?
Q.2 What type of wave motion is represented by the motion of water?