Interaction Between a Photon & Surface Electron
- In the photoelectric effect, it is very important to note:
Each surface electron can only interact with a single photon
- This provides important evidence that light is quantised or carried in discrete packets
- This also means the number of photoelectrons emitted is exactly equal to the number of photons incident on the surface in which the photoelectric effect is taking place
- Increasing the intensity of the electromagnetic radiation increases the number of photons per area incident on the surface
- From the one-to-one interaction, this also means this increases the number of photoelectrons emitted from the surface