Die "Franck-Hertz-Versuchsröhre

The Franck-Hertz tube is a highly evacuated, mercury-filled electron tube with a plane-parallel electrode system consisting of an indirectly heated oxide cathode with a pinhole aperture, a mesh-like anode, and a collector electrode. The Franck-Hertz experiment (from 1914) demonstrates the existence of discrete energy levels in atoms by showing that electrons transfer energy to atoms only in specific packets. A mercury or neon gas is excited in a tube by electron collisions, resulting in periodic maxima in the collector current. This key experiment confirmed the Bohr model of the atom and quantum mechanics. This video explains the experimental setup and operation of the Franck-Hertz experiment.