How Does the Work Function of Cesium Impact Photoelectric Effect Calculations?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MarkusNaslund19
  • Start date Start date
Join the discussion
Ask a follow-up here, or get your own question answered by working scientists, mathematicians and engineers — people, not an autocomplete.
Real named experts · corrections over time · the nuance an AI answer skips
1 replies · 3K views
MarkusNaslund19
Messages
22
Reaction score
0

Homework Statement



http://www.astro.uvic.ca/~jwillis/teaching/phys215/phys215_assign_2.pdf

It's question 2.

Homework Equations



Work = U/t
E = hf
f = c/lambda
I=Q/t

The Attempt at a Solution



f = c/lambda = (3.00x10^8 m/s)/(530x10^-9 m) = 5.66x10^14 Hz

E = hf = (6.626x10^-34 Js)(5.66x10^14Hz) = 3.75x10^-19 J/photon

Work = 2.00x10^-3 J/s ----> in one second U = 2.00x10^-3 J

#photons = U / E = 5.33 x 10^15 photons

#photo-electrons produced = (5.33 x 10^15)/(10^5) = 5.33x10^10 photo-electrons

Q = (5.33x10^10)(1.60x10^-19 C) = 8.54x10^-9 C

I = 8.54x10^-9 C/s

The thing is I did not use the work function of cesium to solve this. Hence I am unsure if this is right... Any help would be appreciated.

THANKS!
 
on Phys.org
btw, when you say "work", I think you mean "Watts" or more precisely "power".
your method looks good to me.
work function only comes in when you want to know the energy of the photo-electron..but you are only concerned with the amount of them (ie. current) the most you could do is to check that the incoming photon energy can indeed overcome the work function: [tex]E_\text{photon} > \phi[/tex]. I don't think there is any problem with that