An electron emitted in the beta decay of bismuth-210 has a mean kinetic energy of 390 keV. (a) Find the de Broglie wavelength of the electron. (b) Would such an electron be useful in a Davisson-Germer type scattering experiment? Address this question by determining the angle at which a first-order diffraction maximum would be found using the same nickel target as Davisson and Germer.

Answer :

whitneytr12

Answer:

λ=1.7pm

This electron would not be useful in a Davisson-Germer type scattering experiment.

θ=0.45⁰

Explanation:

a) We need to use the relativistic for of the kinetic energy:

[tex]K_{E}=mc^{2}-m_{0}c^{2}[/tex].                                   (1)

Here m₀ is the mass rest and c the speed of light in vacuum.

We can write this equation in terms of the linear momentum (p) using this expression: [tex]p^{2}c^{2}=-m_{0}^{2}c^{4}+(mc^{2})^{2}[/tex]    (2)

if we solve this equation for p and put into the first equation we will have the KE in terms of p.

From (2) we have: [tex]mc^{2}=\sqrt{p^{2}c^{2}+(mc^{2})^{2}}[/tex]      (3)

Let's substitute mc² in (1).

[tex]K_{E}=\sqrt{p^{2}c^{2}+(m_{0}c^{2})^{2}}-m_{0}c^{2}[/tex]         (4)

Now, let's solve this for p:

[tex]p=\frac{\sqrt{K_{E}(K_{E}+2m_{0}c^{2})} }{c}[/tex]

And finally, using the De Broglie wavelength equation[tex]\lambda=\frac{h}{p}=\frac{hc}{\sqrt{K_{E}(K_{E}+2m_{0}c^{2})}} =1.7*10^{-12}[/tex].

[tex]m_{0}c^{2}=0.511*10^{6}eV[/tex]

[tex]h=4.136*10^{-15} eVs[/tex]

[tex]c=3*10^{8}m/s[/tex]

b) To determine the angle of the first order diffraction, we use the Bragg equation:

[tex]n\lambda=dsin(\theta).[/tex]

Now , in the Davisson and Germer, they use a nickel target, so the inter atomic distance for this particular element is around 0.215 nm. We take n=1 for the first order

[tex]sin(\theta)=\frac{\lambda}{d}=7.8*10^{-3}[/tex] and [tex]\theta=0.45^{o}[/tex].

If we see, this angle is to small to implement the experiment, so it would not be useful in a Davisson-Germer type scattering experiment.

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