Nobody has doubted for a long time that light is a stream of photons. Photons are electromagnetic oscillations of a certain frequency according to the generally accepted model.
Normal white light is a mixture of vibrations of different frequencies. This is the so-called visible spectrum. It occupies frequencies from 400 to 790 terahertz or has wavelengths from 740 nm (red) to 380 nm (violet). The violet component of the visible spectrum has almost twice the frequency of the red component. We can see all the components of this spectrum. The energy carrier of this radiation is photons with energies from 3.26 eV to 1.68 eV.
In the general register, all types of electromagnetic radiation have approximately the following order in decreasing wavelength.
Naturally, this is not a strict distribution of radiation and not all of its types. Their boundaries are blurred. The fact of a decrease in the wavelength and an increase in frequency towards the stimulated emission is important for us. In this list of emissions, radio emissions have the longest wavelengths.
The list includes neutrino radiation, since, according to the author, this is the minimum piece of energy, that is, a quantum. Let's take a closer look at the of these radiation.
The table shows that the radiation energy increases with increasing frequency. Therefore, the dependence of the energy of the radiation photons obeys the relation E=hv .
But when we consider the relict radiation, we see that its energy value does not obey this pattern. Its temperature turns out to be close to 2.725 K. This is a very small energy in relation to, for example, infrared radiation. Everyone can feel the temperature of infrared radiation by standing near the fire. Everything turns out exactly the opposite. The relic radiation should fry us , and the infrared radiation should be much colder than the relic radiation. Something is wrong here. Either we calculate the photon energy incorrectly, or these types of radiation located are not in that order.
If we take the lower limit of radio emission 0.1 mm and the corresponding photon with an energy of 12.4 * 10 10-15 eV and compare it with the upper limit of the visible spectrum 740 nm = 0.74 * 10 - 3 mm, where the photon energy is 1.68 eV, then we will see that calculating the energy by the formula E = hv does not work in this case.
The energy of photons of stimulated and spontaneous emissions is also calculated by the Planck formula, but this is aany type of radiation for the reason that any radiation can be either spontaneous (for a reason unknown to us) or forced (we understand what is the cause of radiation, and we can provoke this radiation).
And one more consideration. If we do not take into account neutrinos, then we can say that the highest frequency (according to the generally accepted model) is possessed by the relic radiation, and, consequently, the highest energy. Ionizing radiation has less energy, gamma radiation has even less energy, and so on along the line of radiation.
Such a distribution of radiation energy, as it were, is confirmed by the fact that these types of radiation have the corresponding property to penetrate through various substances. The relict should have a greater penetrating ability, but no data on the permeability of this radiation could be found.
Gamma radiation is most manifested in nuclear reactions and it takes some effort to protect itself from it. X-ray radiation has a lesser penetrating ability. It, for example, passes well through human soft tissues and poorly passes through bone tissues. Ultraviolet radiation penetrates only the thinnest layer of human skin. Visible radiation penetrates certain substances in much the same way as ultraviolet light. For example, bright light penetrates a person's eyelids.
And it seems logical, the shorter the photon, the easier it passes through the obstacle. Its energy is not enough to interact with a certain environment and be absorbed by it (for example, human tissue). And the minimum (single) quantum is nothing more than a neutrino, it passes through all substances almost unhindered. The CMB is so cold because its short photons cannot vibrate electrons to higher temperatures.
This is where the confirmation of the fact of the possibility of penetration of photons through substances in accordance with the value of their energy ends. Already infrared radiation penetrates deeper into the substance, warming it up, and microwave radiation very quickly penetrates into the pan throughout its entire volume and boils water in it.
Is it possible on this basis to say that the energy of microwave radiation is greater than the energy of visible radiation? Not. Place a matching lens over a saucepan and the sun will quickly boil it. On the other hand, judging by the frequency, can we say that the energy of visible or microwave radiation is billions or 15 orders of magnitude greater than the energy of radio waves? I think not.
The radio wave radiation in the phone of the detector receiver mechanically vibrates the membrane, this requires the corresponding energy. Quite a lot of such receivers can be loaded on one transmitter and their total power can be, if not so high, then not vanishingly low.
Next. If we sit in a dark room, we can detect gamma radiation in it when the radiation source is located outside the room. We can also detect X-rays, infrared, microwave and radio emissions of all kinds with the help of receivers. But the visible spectrum (no windows) will not get into the room.
It turns out that the penetrating ability does not depend on the energy of photons. This phenomenon is not resolved even when the scale of the photon energy is reversed, that is, to assume that the photon energy is the greater the greater its length.
And why, then, the photons of the visible and close to it spectra turned out to be poorly penetrating through many substances, while the photons of other spectra easily penetrate through these substances? The answer is simple. These substances contain electrons resonant for photons in the visible spectrum. Glass does not contain such electrons and light passes through it freely.
Then how to explain that substances contain resonant electrons for the visible spectrum? An answer that can discourage anyone. We live in this time interval, as described in the article The quantum level of the physical essence of time.
Our solar system, and maybe our galaxy or even the universe, moves exactly at such a speed at which, for the most part, such photons, close to the visible spectrum, are formed. These are working photons that they need to be emitted and absorbed. The relic radiation in this range has nothing to do. When our speed drops to relict frequencies, then the visible spectrum will penetrate better than X-ray photons. Or if our speed increases to short radio photons, then we will not hear transmissions at these frequencies in the room, but it will be bright even without windows and we will receive long waves.
All these doubts do not give confidence that the energy of a photon is set by its frequency. Besides, we confuse the radiation frequency and the photon frequency.
The frequency gradation of emissions, according to the methods of their receipt, does not say anything about the structure of these emissions. It is assumed that green has such and such a frequency, hard X-rays have such and such a frequency, and so on. In reality, green or X-rays can have many different hues.
This wonderful property photons shows that the energy of photons does not depend on frequency, the emitter can generate photons of different energy of the same frequency of electromagnetic radiation. The energy of the radiation flux depends on the radiation frequency, since in the flux photons can follow with different periods.
In our case, the longest elementary photon is 3, it has, for example, a length of 200 quanta.
Other elementary photons that make up a photon packet contain fewer quanta. But with a different generation mode, you can get packets of a different length. If the acceleration of electrons during generation is greater, then the photons will be longer (200), with a lower acceleration the packets will be shorter (100 or 50), and they can follow with the same frequency.
This behavior of photons is confirmed by the phenomena of brightness and contrast of radiation.
It is clear that sets of photons can contain a different quantity and quality of elementary photons for different radiation modes. The wavelength itself is set by the radiation source.
Any LC circuit can generate any intensity of radiation flux at the same frequency. The averaged intensities of the electric and magnetic fields of photons represent the classical values of the vectors E and H . The thicker the packet, the more tension E and H , the greater the modulus of the Poyting vector, and therefore the greater the density of energy flowing through a unit area.
Of course, many will be confused in the process of radiation, the absence of the presence of negative directions of energy flows. Everyone is accustomed to the sinusoidal method of transmitting electromagnetic energy, there is a plus, there is a minus. One thing can be said about this: "Try to pump oil or water, moving it back and forth." You will not get the desired result.
In practice, it only happens like this: the piston, having pushed the liquid into the pipe, returns back without liquid. The situation is exactly the same with electromagnetic energy. When electrons move in one direction of the transmitting antenna, they emit photons, that is, they are unloaded from energy, and when they move in the opposite direction, they absorb photons supplied from the oscillatory circuit.
The emitted photon from the electron freed up a certain place for exactly the same photon, that is, the electron became resonant for the next photon. The cycle repeats.
Not all electrons of the antenna emit elementary photons in a given period, but only those that are accelerated. Those that are decelerated, on the contrary, absorb other elementary photons that have received energy from the source. This does not make it possible, even in a resonant system, to obtain an efficiency of 100%. In the next cycle, some of the hindered electrons (possibly even all) will participate in the generation of the next wave.
The smaller L and C, the shorter the path of electrons, the shorter they generate elementary photons. Beams of elementary photons become shorter, forming medium-wave photons, then short-wave photons, etc. In a magnetron, the LC circuit is a longitudinally slotted tube or even a ring. This is microwave radiation.
These types of photons are formed by hand using a contour. The supply of various types of voltages to the circuit leads to a corresponding modulation of the photon flux. This is usually a sinusoidal signal, which is then modulated with audio, video, and sync signals. In radar, the flux of photons is often modulated by rectangular pulses of different duty cycle.
A person forms infrared photons in most cases with the help of chemistry, in particular oxidative reactions, burning something. When molecules enter into chemical reactions, electrons move from one atom to another, collide with each other, receiving certain accelerations. Their oscillation area is much smaller than in the artificial circuit, the force impulse is less than in the circuit and, accordingly, shorter elementary photons are generated. As a result, infrared photons are shorter than radio photons. With an increase in the number of collisions, the amplitudes of motion of electrons decrease, as a result of which elementary photons become shorter, and the frequency of radiation rises to the visible spectrum and ultraviolet.
We receive these types of radiation in electrical circuits. An ordinary light bulb generates photons in the visible, thermal, ultraviolet and other ranges. It would seem that fluctuations in the voltage of a 50 Hz network should generate photons corresponding to a frequency of 50 Hz, because a force pulse acts on an electron for about 1/25 sec. It would be so if the filament had certain parameters in size and in the presence of superconductivity in it. In this case, the electrons would run through the corresponding path in the acceleration mode and elementary photons would be emitted with the corresponding length. We would get a photon corresponding to a frequency of 50 Hz.
When the resistance of the filament changes upward, the path of electrons changes, shorter elementary photons begin to appear, and the long ones begin to disappear. The system starts generating ultra-low frequencies. A further increase in resistance will lead to the appearance of low frequencies, then medium frequencies, high, microwave, infrared, optical, ultraviolet frequencies. Tungsten has such a resistance that we observe the main radiation from microwave to ultraviolet.
Usually, in each mode of radiation, photons of almost all types of radiation are present to a greater or lesser extent. This is very pronounced in the presence of thermal noise in radio communications or relic noise in space communications.
X-ray photons are shorter than photons generated by the free motion of electrons of matter. Free movement was limited by the properties of the substances involved in this process. There is a forced process in the organization of X-ray radiation. We knock out the electron, provoke its movement, and immediately slow it down. By this, we can make the run of the electron much shorter than its free (thermal) motion. The sharper we decelerate the electron, the tougher the X-rays we receive.
Gamma photons are triggered by the interaction of nuclear fission products with electrons. In this case, even shorter photons are generated.
Conclusions
From the above, we can conclude that tying the photon energy to the frequency of the emitter is not always justified. There is always one frequency in a photon, the repetition rate of electric and magnetic vortices in a quantum. Photons of different powers can follow with different frequencies, determining the power or intensity of the radiation.
In addition, in practical terms, the radiation intensity also depends on the power of the generator of this radiation. A klystron and a magnetron can emit the same spectrum, but the photon flux of the klystron is much weaker than the flux of photons from the magnetron.
If we take the radiation energy, for example, in 1000 quanta, then it can be transmitted at different frequencies. When quanta (minimum elementary photons) follow through some cross section with a duty cycle of 1 millisecond, then we fix the radiation frequency of 1 kHz. When the quanta are grouped into elementary photons (recall, an elementary photon is the radiation of one electron), 10 pieces each, the same energy of 1000 quanta, through this cross section in 1 second can be transmitted in 100 cycles, fixing the radiation frequency of 100 Hz. Grouping quanta into an elementary photon of 100 pieces will give a radiation frequency of 10 Hz and so on.
That is, we see that the repetition rate of photons does not obey Planck's formula in any way. Moreover, even at the same radiation frequency, we will receive different photon energies if we use a different number of electrons in the radiation process. In essence, the power of the generator sets the radiation power or the energy of photons, while the energy of a quantum is a natural permanent physical phenomenon.
The widest range of radiation is possessed by an absolutely black body.