Photoelectric effect

The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons or other free carriers when light is shone onto a material. Electrons emitted in this manner can be called photo electrons. The phenomenon is commonly studied in electronic physics, as well as in fields of chemistry, such as quantum chemistry or electrochemistry. In 1905, Albert Einstein published a paper advancing the hypothesis that light energy is carried in discrete quantized packets to explain experimental data from the photoelectric effect.