Curious said:
So are electrons drawn towards the EM field as the photon nears, or does the oscillation prevent any attraction from taking place, leaving the orbital path responsible for bringing the electrons into the field? I know you said above that the atom is siting within the EM field, but there must be interim steps as time progresses and particles approach one another, right?
It would seem that If electrons are being drawn towards the photon's EM field, then a substantial amount of radiation would be enough to alter the electron cloud to such a degree that the atom itself would be affected, a change it's normal vibrations - or begin to heat. Maybe - or am I totally off in left field once again.
Again, there is a problem here because you are mixing MANY different things together.
Are you asking about ONE single photon interaction, of MANY photons interaction?
Here's the deal. We KNOW that EM waves can interact with atoms. We have experiments for it. We also know that light interacts with charged particles. We have experiments for it. Heck, particle accelerators depend on that interaction.
HOWEVER
These are considered to be interaction with MANY, MANY, MANY photons (i.e. when the EM waves are often considered interacting classically).
It is unclear if you are asking if ONE photon can somehow affect an atom's orbital, or change it's structure, etc... or if you're asking if EM waves in general (i.e. when there are MANY, MANY, MANY photons) can do that. Those are two different and separate scenarios!
It is almost impossible to answer a question when the question itself is vague. I see people here trying to address your question, and yet, I don't see any level of clarity in the question itself. When that happens, you'll get answers (many, MANY different answers) that may not even address what you actually had in mind, and worse still, you may not even be aware that the answer you've received and may accept isn't even relevant to the question that you asked in the first place!
This is what commonly happens when you try to pry deeper and more carefully into physics. As physicists, we are fully aware that once we ask Mother Nature some of the most basic and fundamental questions, She will ask her back "
Now young man or young woman, what EXACTLY do you mean by that?" As someone who is just learning about these things, you may want to start and put a bit more consideration into the questions that you form. It is a very good practice.
Zz.