Excitation and photons

whats excitation

When an electron absorbs a disctete quantity of energy and moves from a higher energy level to a lower energy level still remaining bound to the atom

What would happen if an electron with energy lower than the ground state was about to collide with the atom

It would repel

How do we work out the kinetic energy of a free electron after excitation

Ek = energy of incoming electron - excitation energy

What happens when an electron de-excites

An electron moves from a higher energy level to a lower energy level. It releases energy in the form of a photon which is equal to the difference in the energy between the two levels

The greater the energy difference between the energy levels

The more energetic the photon released and the shorter the wavelength

What else can excite an atom and what are the conditions for this

A photon

An electron will only absorb energy from a photon if it has the exact amount of excitation energy

What can photons do other than exciting an atom

Ionising an atom

In ionisation the extra energy gets converted into the kinetic energy of the electron just like with ionisation with an electron

How can we observe the maximum possible number of wavelengths

nC2 Calculator