Question: ( Planck ' s constant from Feynman's double - slit experiment ) In Feynman's double - slit experiment we discussed in class, a weak
Plancks constant from Feynman's doubleslit experiment" In Feynman's doubleslit experiment we discussed in class, a weak radioactive source emits electrons, one at a time. The electrons are passing through a very narrow slit, on which they diffract. The diffracted electrons next hit two other narrow slits, at equal distance from the first slit. The separation between the slits is d In a modern version of this experiment, we detect an interference pattern with a flat sheet of silicon, sliced into very small pixels and instrumented so that it's acting like a CCD camera. The screeen with the two slits is parallel with the plane of the CCD camera, and the distance between them is L where L gg d
a We first need to measure the momentum of the electrons emitted by the radioactive source. The electrons are a product of radioactive decays, and have a fixed kinetic energy.
To do that, we remove the screens with slits, and turn on a magnetic field vecB perpendicular to the direction of the electron beam. From the deflection of the electron beam we measure the radius of the curvature of its trajectory, R What is the momentum of the electrons?
b What is deBroglie wavelength of the electrons?
c Next, we reinstall the screens and perform Feynman's experiment. We observe the "central maximum" corresponding to no phase difference at the midpoint between the slits, projected onto the plane of the CCD camera. The first interference maximum is observed at distance Delta yDelta y ll L What is the phase condition for a constructive interference corresponding to the first maximum?
d Determine the Planck's constant from a combination of these two experiments.
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