IST 8A Lecture - Jan.

9, 2006
M. Molinaro IST 8A (Shedding Light on Life) - W06
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

What is Light?

Light - the big picture

The brief history of science with Biophotonics emphasis ! The photon and its properties ! The Electromagnetic Spectrum
!

PDF versions of slides at:

http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/education/courses/winter2006-IST8A

A Brief History of Modern Science (with biophotonics in mind)

1895 - Roentgen - x-ray 1897 - Thomson - electron 1939 - Lawrence - cyclotron 1942 - Oppenheimer - Manhattan Project (LANL) 1947 - Bardeen, Brattain, Shockley - transistor 1950 - Truman - National Science Foundation

A Brief History of Modern Science (cont.)

1952 - Teller - UC Radiation Lab (LLNL) 1953 - Watson and Crick - DNA 1960 - Townes - laser 1971 - Kilby and Noyce - integrated circuit 1987 - Bloch - STC program at NSF 2002 - Matthews - CBST

A Brief History of Modern Science (cont.)

Biophotonics has already played a central role in the most famous paper in modern biology: J.D. Watson and F.H.C. Crick, Nature, April 25, 1953, p, 737. So, winning a Nobel Prize only requires one page (of very good work):

A Photon is:
!

! ! !

The photon (from Greek !"# "phos", meaning light) is the quantum of the electromagnetic field (smallest unit). The term photon was coined by Gilbert Lewis in 1926. In some respects a photon acts as a particle, for instance when registered by the light sensitive device in a camera. In other respects, a photon acts like a wave, as when passing through the optics in a camera. According to the so-called wave-particle duality in quantum physics, it is natural for the photon to display either aspect of its nature, according to the circumstances. Normally, light is formed from a large number of photons, with the intensity related to the number of them. At low intensity, very sensitive instruments can detect the individual photons.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

Photon Properties
! !

! ! !

Photons are commonly associated with visible light, but this is actually only a very limited part of the electromagnetic spectrum. All electromagnetic radiation is quantized as photons: that is, the smallest amount of electromagnetic radiation that can exist is one photon, whatever its wavelength, frequency, energy, or momentum. Photons are fundamental particles (cannot be broken down further). They can be created and destroyed when interacting with other particles, but are not known to decay on their own. Unlike most particles, photons have no detectable intrinsic mass, or "rest mass". Photons are always moving at the speed of light with respect to all observers. Although they lack mass, photons have both energy and momentum proportional to their frequency (or inversely proportional to their wavelength). This momentum can be transferred when a photon collides with matter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

Creation of Photons
! Photons

are produced by atoms when a bound electron moves from one orbital to another orbital with less (more negative) energy. ! Photons can be emitted by an unstable nucleus when it undergoes some types of nuclear decay. ! Photons are produced whenever charged particles are accelerated. ! Atoms continuously emit photons due to their collisions with each other. The wavelength distribution of these photons is related to their absolute temperature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

Groups of Photons
! Visible

light from ordinary sources (like the Sun or a lamp) is a mixture of many photons of different wavelengths.
A frequency spectrum can seen by passing the light through a prism.

! An

assembly of photons can also exist in much more well-organized coherent states, such as in the light emitted by an ideal laser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photon

A photon is:
A mass-less particle with energy given by: E = h f = hc/! because f = c/! (wave like) p = h/! so E = cp (particle like) where h = Plancks constant (= 0.6626 x 10-33 Js) f (or ") = frequency c = speed of light (= 0.2998 x 109 m/s) ! = wavelength (wave-particle duality) p = momentum (wave-particle duality)

Note especially: f (or ") = c/!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light

A photon is:

associated with a wide range of wavelengths as indicated by the electromagnetic radiation spectrum.

A photon is not:
a particle (proton, neutron, or electron) with mass. But, these small particles can behave like waves:

! = h/mv where m = mass v = velocity (This is called the de Broglie wavelength, another example of waveparticle duality.)

http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSpec2.html http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/ALSTool/EMSpec/EMSpec2.html

Online Exploration: http://cbst.ucdavis.edu/education/public-resources-tools/tools

ASIDE: An Electronvolt
!

An electronvolt (symbol: eV) is the amount of kinetic energy gained by a single unbound electron when it passes through an electrostatic potential difference of one volt, in vacuum. 1 eV = 1.602 176 53 (14) $ 10% 1 9 J

For comparison:
! ! ! !

3.2 $ 10%1 1 joule or 200 MeV - total energy released in nuclear fission of one U-235 atom (on average) 3.5 $ 10%1 1 joule or 210 MeV - total energy released in fission of one Pu-239 atom (on average) Molecular bond energies are on the order of an electronvolt per molecule. The typical atmospheric molecule has an energy of about 0.03 eV. This corresponds to room temperature.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electron_volt

Focus on Radio Frequencies

! ! ! !

Wavelengths: >100,000 km to about 1dm Frequencies: <3 Hz to about 3 GHz (Giga - 1x109) Energies: 124 feV (femto - 1x10-15) to about 12.4 eV Note: Radio waves generally are utilized by antennas . They are used
for transmission of data, via modulation. Television, mobile phones, wireless networking and amateur radio all use radio waves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_spectrum

Focus on Microwaves
! ! ! !

Wavelengths: 1dm to 1 mm Frequencies: 3 GHz to 300 GHz Energies: 12.4 eV to 1.24 meV Note: Microwaves are absorbed by molecules that have a dipole moment in liquids (rotate). In a microwave oven, this effect is used to heat food. Low-intensity microwave radiation is used in Wi-Fi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum
http://www.beyondconnectedhome.com/aboutus/press/downloads/microwave_sml.jpg

Focus on Infrared light

Wavelengths: 1mm to 750 nm (Nano - 1x10-9) ! Frequencies: 300 GHz to 400 THz (Tera - 1x1012) ! Energies: 1.24 meV to 1.65 eV ! Note: Far IR (rotate gases and molecular motion), water in atmospheres blocks most. Mid IR - molecular vibrations. Near IR acts like visible
!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Focus on visible light

Wavelengths: 750 nm to 380 nm (ROYGBIV) ! Frequencies: 400 THz to 790 THz ! Energies: 1.6 eV to 3.27 eV ! Note: molecules tend to absorb
!

http://education.cbst.ucdavis.edu/resources/java/emission/Java%20Classes/emission.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Focus on Ultraviolet light

Wavelengths: 380nm to 10nm ! Frequencies: 790 THz to 30 PHz (Peta - 1x1015) ! Energies: 3.27 eV to 124 eV ! Note: can break chemical bonds, dangerous to biological organisms. Atmosphere absorbs most (ozone)
!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Focus on X-rays
Wavelengths: 10 nm to 10 pm (Pico - 1x10-12) ! Frequencies: 30 PHz to 30 Ehz (Exa - 1x1018) ! Energies: 124eV to 124 keV ! Note: soft and hard X-rays, go through much biological tissue. Ionizing radiation.
!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

X-ray from Marco teeth w/ braces

Focus on Gamma rays

Wavelengths: 10 pm to 1 pm ! Frequencies: 30 EHz to 300 EHz ! Energies: 124 keV to 1.24 MeV ! Note: These are the most energetic photons, having no lower limit to their wavelength. They are useful to astronomers in the study of high-energy objects or regions and find a use with physicists thanks to their penetrative ability and their production from radioisotopes.
!

http://www.ast.leeds.ac.uk/haverah/spase.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum

Biophotonics Course Focus

Focus for this course will be primarily on: Visible Light Spectrum (! = 400 nm - 700 nm) ! Infrared (IR) Region (! > 700 nm) ! Ultraviolet (UV) Region (! < 400 nm)
!