0

I recently came across a doubt in the photoelectric effects topic, and It wasn't cleared even after researching,

The doubt is, that when we increase the frequency of incident rays, current is unaffected, as the number of electrons is the same, and Kinetic energy is increased.

But if KE increases, hence velocity increases and current( charge per unit time) Should increase as more electrons pass a given point in unit time??

This problem is discussed before on this website, but I was still confused.

Can you please suggest the problem here..

Gagan Yadav
  • 11
  • 1
  • 4

2 Answers2

1

If you're generating, say, 10 photoelectrons per second, it doesn't matter how fast they move to the anode. As long as the anode collects them all, it'll receive 10 electrons per second.

John Doty
  • 22,119
0

"when we increase the frequency of incident rays, current is unaffected, as the number of electrons is the same"

How do you suppose the frequency of the incident light is increased? Presumably by using a different light source. But there is no reason to suppose that this light source will eject electrons from the surface at the same rate as the previous one. It may send out a different number of photons per second and these photons, being more energetic, will be likely to eject more electrons per 1000000 photons..

If by some chance the number of electrons ejected per second is the same with the higher frequency source, then see John Doty's answer.

Philip Wood
  • 37,325