How does the atomic structure change as a photon is absorbed?

A photon may be absorbed by an electron and change to a higher energy level orbital, which is further from the nucleus. Unlike spontaneous emission, which is when an electron moves closer to the nucleus and emits a photon, to move an electron further from the nucleus requires the absorption of a photon.

What is happening on the atomic level when a photon of light is absorbed?

Energy and Electrons When an electron is hit by a photon of light, it absorbs the quanta of energy the photon was carrying and moves to a higher energy state.

What happens when photons are absorbed?

The simplest answer is that when a photon is absorbed by an electron, it is completely destroyed. All its energy is imparted to the electron, which instantly jumps to a new energy level. The photon itself ceases to be. The opposite happens when an electron emits a photon.

When light is absorbed it is changed to?

4. When light is absorbed, it is changed to heat.

What happens to the photons that are absorbed by atoms in a gas cloud?

Thus, what we see after light from a blackbody (that is, the continuous source) passes through a cloud of gas is that most of the photons in a narrow range of frequency (or color) don’t make it, leading to breaks, or absorption lines, in the otherwise continuous spectrum of the light source.

Under which conditions can photons be absorbed?

The electrons can exist in discrete energy states as described by the rules of quantum mechanics. If a photon approaches an atom that has an electron that could exist at a higher energy level, where the energy gap closely matches the energy of the photon, then there is a chance that the photon will be absorbed.

Why do things absorb light?

So the selective absorption of light by a particular material occurs because the frequency of the light wave matches the frequency at which electrons in the atoms of that material vibrate. Absorption depends on the state of an object’s electron.

When a photon is absorbed by a pigment light absorbing molecule such as chlorophyll the energy of the photon is transferred to?

when a photon is absorbed by a pigment (chlorophyll) the energy of the photon is transferred to an electron, which is energized from its ground state in a low-energy orbital to an excited state in a high energy orbital.