Dissapation of photon energy

Question

For an incident photon to be absorbed by a material, must it exactly equal a difference in the electron energy levels, or does it just have to be more than one such difference. If more is okay, what happens to the remaining photon energy? Does it continue on as a lower energy photon, if so, the remnant photon might not have enough energy to be absorbed. Would it just continue to travel onward through the material indefinitely? Can one or more electrons be knocked off by a single photon? The concepts of exact energy levels sounds a bit unnatural, like perfect sine wave. Are there uncertainty bands in these electron energy levels?

Possible duplicate of How precise must the energies match for absorption of photons? — John Rennie, Jun 19 '18 at 05:57
Also: Can an electron jump to a higher energy level if the energy is insufficient or exceeds the ΔE? — John Rennie, Jun 19 '18 at 05:58

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 19 '18 at 07:07

1

The energy of the incident photon must be equal to the difference in energy levels whether it be absorbed or emitted, when a photon is absorbed, the electron moves up one energy level, when emitted, the electron moves down one energy level.

answered Jun 19 '18 at 07:07

Pritvik Sinhadc

29

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 19 '18 at 07:10

0

Yes, gamma rays and other high energy light can knock electrons off their orbitals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT6foiglgow This video explains the bohr atomic model in more detail and would answer your question

answered Jun 19 '18 at 07:10

Pritvik Sinhadc

29

Dissapation of photon energy

2 Answers2