L. DUBRIDGE, New Theories of the Photoelectric Effect, 1935. Hermann et Cie, Paris, Frs. 12

L. DUBRIDGE. New Theories of the Photoelectric Effect, 57 pp., 26 figs.

DuBridge’s small book is devoted to questions connected with the application of the new statistics of the Fermi electron gas to the normal photoelectric effect. In contrast to a number of conclusions of the old theory of this effect—in particular concerning the velocities of photoelectrons and the red limit—the new theory confirms them only in the case of absolute zero, while at temperatures above high it gives a series of peculiar regularities. The author, himself a well-known worker precisely in this field, sets himself the aim of systematizing all that is new which, in connection with all this, has crystallized during recent years. After an elementary exposition of Sommerfeld’s theory, the question of the spectral distribution of the photoeffect and of its temperature dependence from the point of view of Fowler’s well-known theory is discussed, and the results obtained are compared with experimental data. Then the question of the distribution of photoelectron velocities is examined, with the derivation of the distribution equations from the Fermi–Sommerfeld equation and with a comparison of the results obtained with the experimental data. Finally, questions of photoelectric determination of \(e/m\) and of the absolute photoelectric yield are also briefly considered.

The book is written very simply and interestingly and may in particular serve as a supplement to the well-known monograph by Hughes and DuBridge, Photoelectric Phenomena.

N. D. Morgulis, Kiev.