Physical Transformation AtlasPTA
Phenomenon · phenomenon:photoelectric-effect

Photoelectric effect

Photons above the work function eject electrons from a surface into vacuum. Historically decisive; as a converter it is a photon-driven thermionic emitter.

Optics and photonicsfirst reported 1887

Atlas record: 3 claims reference this phenomenon — 3 established.

Explorerelations · matrix context · routes · sources · cite

conditions: vacuum required · illumination required
3claims1enumerated routes1routes with complete-composition evidence0candidate routes not searched2cited sources

Relations

drives · 1
Incident radiation flux—drives→Photoelectric effectestablished
  • photon energy above the work function of the emitter; a vacuum gap to a collector
produces · 1
Photoelectric effect—produces→Charge carriersestablished
member of · 1
Photoelectric effect—member of→Thermionicestablished

Matrix context

D = disequilibrium row · C = coupling family column. A cell reads the state of the atlas for that pair.

D.11 × C.02 · Incident radiation flux × Thermionic · Established
family: Thermionic (C.02)

Enumerated routes through this · 1

Cited sources · 2

  1. [1]
    C. Kittel. Introduction to Solid State Physics (8th ed.) (2005)
    Wiley · book, no DOI · record
  2. [2]
    J. W. Schwede, et al.. Photon-enhanced thermionic emission for solar concentrator systems (2010)
    Nature Materials 9, 762–767 · doi:10.1038/nmat2814 · crossref ✓ 2026-09-19 · record

Cite this entity

Physical Transformation Atlas (2026). entity phenomenon:photoelectric-effect: Photoelectric effect. Dataset revision rbfbfcbb70e57 (hash of the canonical data). https://physical-transformation-atlas.wldud5192.workers.dev/phenomenon/photoelectric-effect

Ids and matrix addresses are stable across revisions; the revision hash identifies the exact canonical files the record was compiled from and is meta.data_hash in every /api export. Reuse terms: see the license field in any export.