6 EINSTEIN’S PHOTOELECTRIC EQUATION: ENERGY
QUANTUM OF RADIATION
In 1905, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) proposed a radically new picture
of electromagnetic radiation to explain photoelectric effect In this picture,
photoelectric emission does not take place by continuous absorption of
energy from radiation Radiation energy is built up of discrete units – the
so called quanta of energy of radiation Each quantum of radiant energy
has energy hn, where h is Planck’s constant and n the frequency of light