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Position Measurement Gamma Ray Microscope Thought Experiment

Gamma ray microscope explanation

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27 views2 pages

Position Measurement Gamma Ray Microscope Thought Experiment

Gamma ray microscope explanation

Uploaded by

lionking.1012000
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Position measurement – gamma ray microscope thought experiment

If one wants to be clear about what is meant by "position of an object," for example of an
electron..., then one has to specify definite experiments by which the "position of an electron"
can be measured; otherwise this term has no meaning at all.
--Heisenberg, 1927

Heisenberg pictured a microscope that obtains very high resolution by using high-
energy gamma rays for illumination. No such microscope exists at present, but it could be
constructed in principle. Using this microscope, Heisenberg imagined to see an electron and also
to measure its position. He found that the electron's position and momentum did indeed obey the
uncertainty relation he had derived mathematically.

Fig. 1(a), 1(b), 1(c), 1(d).


A free electron sits directly beneath the center of the microscope's lens (see the picture above).
The circular lens forms a cone of angle 2A from the electron. The electron is then illuminated
from the left by gamma rays--high energy light which has the shortest wavelength. This yields
the highest resolution. According to a principle of wave optics, the microscope can resolve
objects to a size of Δx, which is related to the wavelength L of the gamma ray, by the expression:
L
x 
sin A

It appears that by making L small, that is why we choose gamma-ray, and by making sin A
large, Δx can be made as small as desired. But, according to uncertainty principle, we can do so
only at the expense of our knowledge of x-component of electron momentum.

However, in quantum mechanics, where a light wave can act like a particle (photon), a gamma
ray striking an electron gives it a kick (Compton Effect). At the moment the light is diffracted by
the electron into the microscope lens, the electron is thrust to the right (Fig.1(d)). To be observed
by the microscope, the gamma ray must be scattered into any angle within the cone of angle 2A.
In quantum mechanics, the gamma ray carries momentum, as if it were a particle. The total
momentum p is related to the wavelength by the formula
h
p ,
L
where h is the Planck’s constant.
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In the extreme case of diffraction of the gamma ray to the right edge of the lens, the total
momentum in the x-direction would be the sum of the electron's momentum p'x in the x-direction
and the gamma ray's momentum in the x-direction:
(h sin A)
px  ,
L
where L' is the wavelength of the deflected gamma ray.
In the other extreme, the observed gamma ray recoils backward, just hitting the left edge of the
lens. In this case, the total momentum in the x direction is:
(h sin A)
px  ,
L
where L'' is the wavelength of the deflected gamma ray.
The final x momentum in each case must equal the initial x momentum, since momentum is
never lost (it is conserved). Therefore, the final x momenta are equal to each other:
(h sin A) (h sin A)
px   px 
L L
If A is small, then the wavelengths are approximately the same, L' ~ L" ~ L. So we have
(2h sin A)
px  px  px 
L
L
Since sin A  , we obtain a reciprocal relationship between the minimum uncertainty in the
x
measured position, Δx, of the electron along the x-axis and the uncertainty in its momentum,
Δpx, in the x-direction:
2h
px ~ or xpx ~ 4 (Heisenberg’s uncertainty relation)
x
References:

1. Ghosal, S. N. (1996). Atomic and Nuclear Physics, S. Chand & Company Ltd: New
Delhi, Pp 235.
2. Shankar, R. (2010).Principles of Quantum Mechanics, Springer International: India,
Pp140.
3. Bransden, B.H., & Joachain, C.J. (2004).Quantum Mechanics, 2nd ed., Pearson
Education: India. Pp 70-72.

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