Sentences with phrase «atoms absorb photons»

As the atom absorbs photons, it will receive a barrage of momentum kicks in the direction that the light beam propagates.

Peering through a viewport, I watch as a blob of atoms absorbs photons of laser light and re-emits them at slightly higher energies, losing a bit of heat each time.

Some might argue that the term «re-radiate» should be reserved for cases where a molecule or atom absorbs a photon of a given energy, and later emits a photon of the same energy, as the excited state returns to normalcy.

Not exact matches

These rules predict, for example, how electrons orbit a nucleus in an atom, and how an atom can absorb photons, particles of light.

According to quantum mechanics, an atom can only absorb a photon of particular energies and colors as the electron within the atom hops from a lower energy state to a higher energy state.

Photons that enter the crystal at one end bounce back and forth between these «mirrors» a few thousand times before they can escape, which increases their likelihood of getting absorbed by an atom along the way.

Generally, the bigger the chunk of crystal, the greater the chance that one of its atoms will absorb a photon streaking through the material.

Instead of being knocked out, when an electron tightly bound to a neon atom absorbs the lower energy photon, it becomes loosely bound, causing the atom to become «excited».

The rules of quantum mechanics give atoms discrete ways to absorb energy in collisions or lose it to photons.

Ordinarily the atom acts as a barrier to photons from the probe beam because it would first absorb them — going from its «ground» state to an «excited» state — and then shoot them back, that is, reflect them.

Instead, each particle of light, or photon, is briefly absorbed by an atom in the material.

If an atom absorbs a single photon, its change in velocity is tiny compared with the average velocity of atoms in a gas at room temperature.

Of course, for every photon the atom absorbs, it must emit one.

The photon momentum has a component that is opposite to the atomic motion and, as a result, the momentum kick of the absorbed photon slows the atom down.

If atoms are exposed to several laser beams with carefully chosen polarization and frequency values, then they preferentially absorb photons from the forward hemisphere, where the photon angular momentum and the atomic velocity are at an angle larger than 90 degrees.

Some of those atoms vibrate sufficiently vigorously that their vibrational energy is roughly equal to the electronic energy (photons) absorbed from the sun — in essence, they are in resonance with the solar energy.

If an atom is bombarded with a beam of light of a particular frequency, it will continuously absorb and reemit photons, the quanta of light.

An atom can absorb a photon, or light particle, by boosting one of its electrons to a higher energy, but it's unstable in this state.

When an already excited atom is hit by another photon, however, it can't absorb it; instead it releases a photon of the same color, or frequency.

When such a photon collides with a sodium atom, the sodium's own peculiar properties allow it to absorb the photon's angular momentum.

But after soaking up the twisting of one photon, an atom can't absorb any more and becomes «bleached» — invisible to the laser light.

On its 12 - billion - year journey, the light had passed through interstellar clouds of metals such as iron, nickel and chromium, and the researchers found these atoms had absorbed some of the photons of quasar light — but not the ones they were expecting.

Ordinary atoms can change their energy levels under the right conditions by either absorbing or emitting a photon.

Because dark atoms would emit or absorb dark photons, the universe might be full of invisible, dark light that constantly interacts with clouds of dark atoms, raising their temperature and puffing them up.

Vibrational modes in molecules with three or more atoms (H2O, CO2, O3, N2O, CH4, CFCs, HFCs...) include bending motions that are easier to excite and so will absorb and emit lower energy photons which co-incide with the infrared radiation that the Earth emits.

Photons of sufficient energy are absorbed by oxygen molecules and as a result the atoms of the oxygen are «blown» apart.

All atoms and molecules absorb some waveband (s) of light, then they emit that photon of light shortly thereafter.

If the photon's frequency and energy is different by even a little, the atom can not absorb it (this is the basis of quantum theory).

When that photon hits an atom, that energy can be absorbed.

If the atom absorbs that photon, the atom will have more energy than before.