What do we mean whe we say that electrons absorb photons

[Stranger]

What do we mean whe we say that electrons absorb photons...is it that electrons store photons somewhere...

 

[chroot]

No, electrons don't store photons.

Essentially, the interaction obeys this rule:

Electron with energy E₁ + photon with energy E₂ --> electron with energy (E₁ + E₂).

The photon is destroyed in the process. The electron does not 'store' the photon itself, but it does take on the photon's energy.

- Warren

 

[Stranger]

what do you think is the situation when electron are waves...

 

[chroot]

Quantum-mechanically, waves and particles are one and the same. What exactly do you mean?

- Warren

 

[quantumdude]

Originally posted by Stranger
What do we mean whe we say that electrons absorb photons...is it that electrons store photons somewhere...

Do you mean to say "atoms" instead of "electrons"? That would be the most likely thing, I think.

 

[Stranger]

Quantum-mechanically, waves and particles are one and the same. What exactly do you mean?

Is it that when photons (when considered as particles) are absorbed by electron...then the electrons should be described a particle...and that when photons are considered as waves the electron, absorbing it is also wave...my question was can we consider electrons as waves while considering the photon, that the electron absorbs, as particles...how would you describe a wave absorbing a particle...

 

[dav2008]

You describe a wave/particle absorbing a wave/particle

deBroigles wavelength..It equals Plancks Constant divided by a particles momentum..

Hm..I don't know the detailed physics behind the actual transfer of energy...Maybe we haven't even been able to describe it yet...*shrug*

 

[damgo]

With great difficulty. Because photons are being destroyed, regular quantum mechanics won't work, and you have to use quantum field theory to do it properly. Dirac was the first person to work it out in a famous paper around the middle of the century.

 

[sir-pinski]

As far as I can remember from my quantum mechanics classes to properly describe it you need to do things like qunatise the radiation field and use destruction and creation operators. It's fairly standard in quantum field theory I think. Probably the best way of looking at this particle wave thing is to realize that both descriptions are correct at the same time. Essentially though when you deal with this stuff you just end up using the wave-functions to do the hard number crunching.

 

[Stranger]

...Maybe we haven't even been able to describe it yet.

So do you mean that it has not yet been found out...what the electrons are like...I know that they are like particles as well as like waves...

 

[dav2008]

Originally posted by Stranger
So do you mean that it has not yet been found out...what the electrons are like...I know that they are like particles as well as like waves...

No, I meant that I didnt know whether or not we are able to describe what actually happens during photon interactions