What happens when a photon strikes an electron?

When an electron is hit by a photon of light, it absorbs the quanta of energy the photon was carrying and moves to a higher energy state. Electrons therefore have to jump around within the atom as they either gain or lose energy.

What happens when a positron and an electron collide?

When they meet, the positron and the electron, which are Antiparticles of each other, destroy themselves mutually, they annihilate. Two annihilation gamma with equal energy are also emitted back to back.

What is it called when a photon turns into an electron and a positron?

Pair production is the creation of a subatomic particle and its antiparticle from a neutral boson. Pair production often refers specifically to a photon creating an electron–positron pair near a nucleus.

How much energy is released when an electron and a positron collide?

The total amount of energy released when a positron and an electron annihilate is 1.022 MeV, corresponding to the combined rest mass energies of the positron and electron. The energy is released in the form of photons. The number of photons depends on exactly how the positron and electron annihilate.

What happens to photons when they hit something?

We can think of the incident light as a stream of photons with an energy determined by the light frequency. When a photon hits the metal surface, the photon’s energy is absorbed by an electron in the metal.

What does electron positron pair mean?

pair production, in physics, formation or materialization of two electrons, one negative and the other positive (positron), from a pulse of electromagnetic energy traveling through matter, usually in the vicinity of an atomic nucleus. Pair production is a direct conversion of radiant energy to matter.

Can a free electron absorb a single photon?

A free electron cannot absorb a photon as it is not possible to satisfy the energy and momentum conservation simultaneously. In Compton effect we have both electron and a photon as the final product and it is then possible to conserved energy and momentum.