Compton Effect

This application was designed to simulate the scattering of light off of an electron. Compton used the idea that light behaves like a particle to explain light-electron (photon-electron) scattering.

He used the relation for the energy and momentum of the photon and the relativistic expression for the energy of the electron, and applied relativistic energy and momentum conservation for the collision. The wavelength shift of the light depend on the angle of the scattered photon (and the electron). By changing the scattering angle in the simulation, the angle of the scattered photon changes according to Compton's equation.

The panel on the left shows the experimental set up, while the panel on the right shows the resulting photon wavelength from the scattering. In a typical Compton experiment, light is scattered off of the electrons in an atom, and there is little scattering due to the more tightly held electrons while there is more scattering due to the less tightly held electrons. This is what is responsible for the two peak distribution shown.