On Tuesday, April 22, 2014 11:41 AM, Philip Keller <pkeller@holmdelschools.org> wrote:
" A student asked me a question I need some help with.
Suppose you have a source of light that is just below the threshold
frequency for a given metal surface. You get no photocurrent.
Now suppose the source is approaching at some speed great enough so that
the Doppler effect shifts the frequency to a value above the threshold.
Now you do get photocurrent, yes?
Suppose an observer riding with the source uses a beam splitter so that
half the light approaches you and gets Doppler shifted to give you that
photo current but the other half goes to the ride-along observer. He does
not get a photo current...right?
I'm not even sure what my question is. Can anyone point me to a
photon-based treatment of the doppler effect?
Thanks,
Phil"
Some relevant aspects of this effect are treated in my book "Special Relativity and How It Works" (Relativistic Doppler Effect I (Sec. 6.10), II (Sec. 9.4), and III (Sec. 10.4). Particularly, Sec. 10.4 considers the effect in details, based on the concept of photons.