Why does there need to be a particle representation of light? Doesn't light as a wave explained the observations of the photoelectric perfectly? When the frequency of light is increased, the speed of electrons also increasing. With greater frequency of light, the changing electric and corresponding magnetic fields apply a force on the electrons in a shorter amount of time. And the intensity of light waves, leading to an increase in the number of electrons being released from the metal can be explained by the number of electromagnetic waves reaching the metal surface. So why does there need to be a particle representation of light? Any ideas?
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Take for example light detection with a photomultiplier tube
A photomultiplier tube can be operated in a mode called 'Geiger mode'. In Geiger mode a single quantum of energy is sufficient to trigger an avalanche.
By placing filters a light source can be attenuated down to any level of luminosity. No matter how dim the luminosity, each detection event is triggered by transfer of an amount of energy corresponding to the frequency of the light.
At the same time: no matter how dim the luminosity, interference effect can still be obtained, for instance with a double slit setup.
For instance, let's say there is a row of photomultiplier tubes. Such a row of tubes acts as a very coarse grained photo-sensitive array, such that imaging is enabled.
When given sufficient time an interference pattern builds up.
For that reason, and many others, there is no way to avoid acknowledging that quantum excitations of the quantum electrodynamical field can act as particles.
Cleonis
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