The photoelectric effect refers to what happens when electrons are emitted from a material that has absorbed electromagnetic radiation. Physicist Albert Einstein was the first to describe the ...

What Is the Photoelectric Effect? When light with energy above a certain threshold hits a metal surface, an electron that was previously bound to the metal is knocked loose. Each particle of light ...

Einstein's description of the photoelectric effect, also known as photoionization, laid the theoretical foundation for quantum mechanics. However, the instantaneous nature of this effect has been ...