Heating of elements with laser light

[philip porhammer]

One of the emission lines of iron is 404nm, would iron absorb the heat from a blue laser and not copper?
Not a student, just an old curious guy.
Thanks,
Philip

 

[sophiecentaur]

The iron would probably need to be in gaseous form or you wouldn’t get narrow band absorption.

 

[philip porhammer]

so, the valance electrons in a lattice of Iron would change the frequency or bandwidth of an absorption line?

 

[anorlunda]

A solid material placed in the hot sun gets warmer than if it is placed in the shade. That has nothing to do with valence electrons. The same applies for laser light.

There are many mechanisms for light to be absorbed, scattered, or reflected by materials. Not all of them are associated with an electron in an atom jumping energy states.

 

[philip porhammer]

ok thanks

 

[sophiecentaur]

so, the valance electrons in a lattice of Iron would change the frequency or bandwidth of an absorption line?

An isolated atom will have a line structure but, in the close presence of other atoms, the Pauli Exclusion Principle tells us that no two atoms can have the same quantum numbers. The presence of the other atoms (sufficiently close) will spread the lines into bands.
Condensed matter has very different behaviour from low density gases.

 

[philip porhammer]

thanks,
P