How many photons absorbed

Unless it interacts it does not lose any energy. The above addresses the naive question on the number of photons an electron can absorb, and that is zero for free electrons and continuum photons: there is interaction and not absorption.

Electrons which are bound in atoms or molecules or even crystals are in a quantized state of energy. In this case, of a potential well, one photon can be absorbed by the system electron-in-potential-well at a time.

There could be a second appropriate energy photon which could kick it up again but the times this can happen are countable, and finally the electron will be free and the atom ionized. Usually the electron cascades down to the lower level emitting maybe more photons of lower energy as it falls.

A specific bound electron can help in the absorption of a photon by the system a limited number of times. An electron can only reach the highest possible energy state that is allowed for it before falling back to its original energy state. In case the fundamental particle, the electron, the energy states depend on the atom as whole- the electron depends on the nucleus.

According to Compton Scattering a free electron can never absorb a complete photon. It has to give away a minimum energy whose wavelength is given by.

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Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How many photons can an electron absorb and why? Ask Question. Asked 9 years ago. The frequency of light n is related to wavelength l by the following equation:. Substitute this into the equation for energy. How is energy related to frequency of light? In other words, what kind of function is energy E as a function of light frequency n? Graph this function. Source: Darnell, J. Lodish, and D. Molecular Cell Biology. If you read the links provided you will understand that an elementary particle does not absorb a photon, it can interact with a photon and the result can be variable, but there will always be two particles in and two particles out, because of momentum conservation.

The possible results of a photon interacting with an electron are drawn as Feynman diagrams. The same electron in its trajectory can interact with an unlimited number of photons. Can all fundamental particles that can absorb photons absorb the same amount of photons and why?

Particles interact, and do not absorb. And the interaction with photons will depend on the coupling constants in the Feynman diagrams. If a particle has no charge its probability of interacting with a photon is very low, through higher order diagrams, so no, not all particles interact with the same probability with a photon.

If we increase the velocity of a fundamental particle , do we then increase the amount of photons it can emit? A charged fundamental particle interacting with an electric or magnetic field can emit photons bremsstrahlung or synchrotron radiation. Why do electrons absorb photons? The electron can gain the energy it needs by absorbing light.

If the electron jumps from the second energy level down to the first energy level, it must give off some energy by emitting light. The atom absorbs or emits light in discrete packets called photons, and each photon has a definite energy. What happens when an electron emits a photon? When the electron changes levels, it decreases energy and the atom emits photons. The photon is emitted with the electron moving from a higher energy level to a lower energy level.

The energy of the photon is the exact energy that is lost by the electron moving to its lower energy level. Can an electron absorb a photon? A free electron cannot absorb a photon as it is not possible to satisfy the energy and momentum conservation simultaneously.

In Compton effect we have both electron and a photon as the final product and it is then possible to conserved energy and momentum. What happens after an electron absorbs light?