> But it has to be something different from light that is scarce in dark rooms > since gases have an ionization energy of roughly 60...100eV and ordinary > light photons will not do the trick.
Since it's easily demonstrable that visible light does encourage ionization, it is apparent that photons do not have to carry the full ionization energy to help. Given this, it's worth thinking about how the process could occur. I suspect that passing photons just kick electrons to higher energy orbits*, thereby reducing the amount of energy required for full ionization (completely dissociating an electron from an atom). Further, this process can be repeated, with additional photons kicking the electrons to higher orbits. Via this process, you can gain ionization by a series of small steps. Quantum mechanics does not require it to happen all at once, just that no forbidden energy states are occupied. This is all made less clear by an energy level diagram: http://raptor.physics.wisc.edu/talk/neon_e.gif * effectively reversing the light-emitting situation, and using the same energy, so the energy required would be the same as the photons emitted by neon - in other words, plain old orange photons will suffice. - John -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "neonixie-l" group. To post to this group, send an email to neonixie-l@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to neonixie-l+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/neonixie-l?hl=en-GB.
