In reply to David Roberson's message of Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:37:33 -0400 (EDT):
Hi, [snip] >I have always been suspicious of why a photon of light interacts with only one electron when the wavelength of the light is many times larger than the atom that contains that electron in orbit. Why is there little response from the nearby atoms that have resonances at the same frequency? >>The difference in angular momentum for an electron for allowed transitions is always h_bar, and a photon only has 1 h_bar to give, so only 1 electron can absorb it. (I'm just dying for someone to contradict me here! :)<< Robin, don't die on us. We need your inputs. Does this logic apply to the case where a photon of light causes an electron to jump several energy levels? I know that an electron that occupies an orbital at several levels above ground state can return to either of the available levels so the reverse should be possible. In this case, there should be sufficient momentum to cause several lower level electrons to jump by the input of one photon. How is the energy allocated when this occurs? > > >One might be able to raise an argument concerning reciprocal behavior to explain why only one atom responds to the incoming photon. In this case, only a single photon is released by the change in orbital of a single electron. Why the enormous size question arises is beyond my understanding. >>I don't see the size as a problem, do you? A large wave packet that is 500 nanometers or so in size would strike an area that is many times larger than a single atom. It is difficult to understand how the energy which is spread out so greatly can be concentrated into essentially a single point. ... Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html The behavior between photons and electrons appears much like an entangled pair. That is about the only way that I can imagine that a photon that is far larger in size could only influence a single electron. Dave
