How Do Spin and Photon Interactions Affect Electron Excited States?

[Gavroy]

hi

i have a question about excited state:

let me say you have an atom and then you use light to get the electron to a higher energy level.

does this mean, that there is always a spin change, cause as far as i know the spin of a photon is 1.

but what happens if you have an electron with spin 1/2 and this electron absorbs a photon with spin 1. i know, that you cannot get an electron with spin 3/2, but on the other hand the spin is a conserved quantity, so how does this work out?

 

[Polyrhythmic]

Spin is not a conserved quantity. Total angular momentum of the system is conserved.