In
physics, the
photon is an
elementary particle, the
quantum of the
electromagnetic field and thus the basic unit of
light and all other forms of
electromagnetic radiation. It is also the
force carrier for the
electromagnetic force. This force's easily-visible
human-scale effects, from
friction to the structure of
atoms, are due to the fact that the photon has no
mass and thus can produce interactions at long distances. Like all elementary particles, the photon is governed by
quantum mechanics and so exhibits
wave-particle duality that is, it exhibits both
wave and particle properties. For example, a single photon may undergo
refraction by a
lens or exhibit wave
interference, but also act as a particle giving a definite result when its location is measured.
The modern concept of the photon was developed gradually (1905–1917) by Albert Einstein[4][5][6][7] to explain experimental observations that did not fit the classical wave model of light. In particular, the photon model accounted for the frequency dependence of light's energy, and explained the ability of matter and radiation to be in thermal equilibrium. Other physicists sought to explain these anomalous observations by semiclassical models, in which light is still described by Maxwell's equations, but the material objects that emit and absorb light are quantized. Although these semiclassical models contributed to the development of quantum mechanics, further experiments proved Einstein's hypothesis that light itself is quantized; the quanta of light are photons.
In the modern Standard Model of particle physics, photons are described as a necessary consequence of physical laws having a certain symmetry at every point in spacetime. The intrinsic properties of photons, such as charge, mass and spin, are determined by the properties of this gauge symmetry.
The photon concept has led to momentous advances in experimental and theoretical physics, such as lasers, Bose–Einstein condensation, quantum field theory, and the probabilistic interpretation of quantum mechanics. It has been applied to photochemistry, high-resolution microscopy, and measurements of molecular distances. Recently, photons have been studied as elements of quantum computers and for sophisticated applications in optical communication such as quantum cryptography.
