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Re: [Phys-l] Photoelectric effect question



On 04/29/2008 05:46 PM, Tony wrote:
Light of a certain frequency is incident on a piece of metal. The light is
sufficient to emit photoelectrons from the metal thus making the metal
shiny. Why do our eyes perceive this effect as shiny?

They don't.

A metal that looks shiny under some conditions will
photoemit under other conditions.

Specular ("shiny") reflection is elastic scattering;
photoemission is about as inelastic as anything could be.

The fact that photoemission has a /threshold/ is a big
part of why it is interesting; the above-threshold
behavior is very different from the below-threshold
behavior.

Do the photoelectrons
go through a process where they emit a photon?

No (except possibly as an unrelated downstream event).