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NCERT Exemplar · Q13

Q.In the photoelectric effect, light (photons) is incident on a metal surface travelling along one direction, and photoelectrons are ejected from the surface moving off along a different direction (the incident light and the emitted electron do not travel along the same line). Since the incident photons carry momentum along the direction of the light while the emitted electrons move away in a different direction, how would you reconcile this photoemission with the principle of conservation of momentum? Note that the light (photons) and the emitted electrons have momenta pointing in different directions.

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The emitted electron and the incident photon travel in different directions, yet momentum is still conserved because the electron is bound in the metal, not free. The photon's momentum is taken up by the whole metal lattice, which is so massive that it recoils with negligible kinetic energy. So there is no conflict with conservation of momentum.

Concept

In photoemission a bound electron (not a free one) absorbs a photon inside the metal. The correct system to which conservation laws apply is photon + electron + the rest of the metal, not the photon and a single free electron.

Why a free electron will not do

A truly free electron cannot absorb an entire photon and conserve both energy and momentum at the same time. That is precisely why photoemission requires the electron to be attached to a heavy body — the metal — which can soak up the recoil.

Why the momentum still balances

  • The incident photon carries momentum pph=hνcp_{ph}=\dfrac{h\nu}{c} along the direction of the light.
  • When the electron leaves along a different direction, the missing momentum is carried away by the entire metal (the lattice), which recoils.
  • The metal's mass MM is of order 102210^{22} times the electron mass, so the kinetic energy it gains,

Erecoil=p22M,E_{recoil}=\frac{p^{2}}{2M},

is utterly negligible even though it carries a real momentum pp. …

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