Compton effect
Efecto Compton
- Date
- 1923 · confidence high
- Place
- Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, United States
- Credited to
- Arthur Holly Compton
- People
- 👤 Arthur Compton1892–1962
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
X-rays scattered by electrons increase their wavelength exactly as if they were particles colliding elastically while conserving energy and momentum. Definitive proof that the photon is a particle with momentum.
Debye published a similar theory almost simultaneously in Zurich.
What it led to
- Acceptance of the photon
- Wave-particle duality (De Broglie, 1924)
- High-energy astrophysics (inverse Compton scattering)
- Physics of radiation detectors
Built on
- X-rays1895
- Special relativity1905
- Einstein's light quantum
- Special relativity (relativistic kinematics)
Made possible
- Wave-particle duality: matter waves1924
- Raman effect1928
- Compton cameras for gamma-ray astronomy
- Dosimetry and radiotherapy