Photoelectric effect questions: photon absorption and electron ejection....

[Sandeep T S]

Is a photon fully absorbed by a electron in metal?
Ejected electron is a free electron or bonded one?
Is it possible to have a zero work function? If not why?
I want to study about this detaily ,can you prefer some reference papers?

 

[vanhees71]

The photon is fully absorbed in the photoeffect (that's the definition of the photoeffect). It's absorbed by the entire system the electron is bound to before the "impact" of the photon (i.e., the electromagnetic wave). With a free electron you cannot have the photoeffect due to energy-momentum conservation together with the "on-shell conditions" for the particles. In this case the most simple possible reaction is elastic scattering between the free electron and the photon. This is the Compton effect. In the photoeffect after the reaction the electron is free. Zero work function is not possible since the electron must be bound before the photon hits it. That's again due to energy-momentum conservation.

The most simple correct (!) explanation is the treatment where the electron is quantized and the electromagnetic wave treated classically (i.e., the semiclassical approximation in quantum optics) and the use of first-order time-dependent perturbation theory. You find a treatment in my Insights article (which also explains why the old-fashioned teaching of the photoeffect as being a proof for the existence of little particle-like objects called "photons" is wrong and thus evil misleading didactics):

https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/sins-physics-didactics/