Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Atoms can be excited by heat, electricity, or light. The hydrogen atom provides a simple example of this concept.. The ground state of the hydrogen atom has the atom's single electron in the lowest possible orbital (that is, the spherically symmetric "1s" wave function, which, so far, has been demonstrated to have the lowest possible quantum numbers).
Excited states in nuclear, atomic, and molecule systems have distinct energy values, allowing external energy to be absorbed in the appropriate proportions. [ 6 ] In general, the excitation of electrons in atoms strongly varies from excitation in solids, due to the different nature of the electronic levels and the structural properties of some ...
Any other configuration is an excited state. As an example, the ground state configuration of the sodium atom is 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 1, as deduced from the Aufbau principle (see below). The first excited state is obtained by promoting a 3s electron to the 3p subshell, to obtain the 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3p 1 configuration, abbreviated as the 3p level ...
Rydberg states have energies converging on the energy of the ion. The ionization energy threshold is the energy required to completely liberate an electron from the ionic core of an atom or molecule. In practice, a Rydberg wave packet is created by a laser pulse on a hydrogenic atom and thus populates a superposition of Rydberg states. [3]
If the ground state has a higher population than the excited state (N 1 > N 2), then the absorption process dominates, and there is a net attenuation of photons. If the populations of the two states are the same (N 1 = N 2), the rate of absorption of light exactly balances the rate of emission; the medium is then said to be optically transparent.
If the electron absorbs a quantity of energy less than the binding energy, it will be transferred to an excited state. After a certain time, the electron in an excited state will "jump" (undergo a transition) to a lower state. In a neutral atom, the system will emit a photon of the difference in energy, since energy is conserved.
The internal state of an atom is characterized by a superposition of excited states and their associated energy levels. In the presence of external electromagnetic fields, the atom's energy levels acquire perturbations to the excited states that describe the atom's internal state. When the acquired phase is the same over the range of internal ...
The excited-state wave function is the product of two wave functions such as vibrational and rotational. The general principle is that the symmetry of the excited state is obtained as the direct product of the symmetries of the component wave functions. [15] In rovibronic transitions, the excited states involve three wave functions.