[Veyron]

I have began studying a part of quantum mechanics in high school chemistry and we were introduced to the fact that when an electron is excited by photons, it will move up an energy level. My question comes from the following: When an electron gets excited by a photon or photons and it moves up an energy level, what would happen if as it is moving up to the next level, another electron had moved into the spot that the excited electron is moving up to? Since the electron is moving up a level, but it is being blocked by, colliding with, and at the same time repelled by the electron in the spot that the electron of the lower energy level was moving up to, what would the outcome be? The energy of the electron is forcing it up an energy level but another electron is preventing the move from occuring.

I have done some research on this and have not found any answers.

Insight would be greatly appreciated


-Michael

[Borek]

You may assume it will bounce back emiting the photon.

[Veyron]

Would it be possible if the energy kept it from bouncing back and instead push the electron in the higher energy level out somewhere else?

[Borek]

It can't go somewhere else. If there is enough energy to break free, it will break free. If there is just enough energy to jump to some other energy level, but this energy level is already occupied, it will jump back end emit the photon. There is a slight chance that it will end on some intermediate energy level if that happened to be free. In such a case it will emit less energy that it was excited with, more or less that's what happens in the Raman spectroscopy.