Can we remove an electron from the inner shell of an atom without disturbing the outer orbital? If so, how?
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2$\begingroup$ Welcome on Physics SE :) How do you propose to take the electron out? What do you mean by disturbing the outer orbital? What are your ideas why there should be a disturbance? Please elaborate your question a bit. $\endgroup$– SanyaCommented Oct 16, 2016 at 15:00
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3$\begingroup$ X-ray fluorescence indicates that you can. $\endgroup$– Jon CusterCommented Oct 16, 2016 at 15:07
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1$\begingroup$ As @Jon says this is a work-a-day reality in the interaction of energetic radiation and matter, but these are stochastic processes and you can't pick a particular atom nor a particular time. Nor can you prevent the ionization of the atom from other orbitals as well (though by using a tuned x-ray source you can greatly increase the fraction of inner-shell events). $\endgroup$– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenCommented Oct 16, 2016 at 20:15
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$\begingroup$ Nuclear internal conversion kicks out K, L, and M shell electrons every day. What exactly do you mean by "without disturbing the outer orbital?" Eventually, that hole in the inner shell will be filled by an outer shell electron. There's no way to prevent that. $\endgroup$– Bill NCommented Oct 17, 2016 at 17:31
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1 Answer
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Yes, a photoelectric transition (usually with incident X-rays) can
eject an inner electron; Ag X-ray absorption
The highest-energy sharp edge is the onset of 1S electron ejection, and
at/near the edge, there is little leftover energy to be distributed in
disturbing other electrons (shake-up is a common term for such disturbance).
This is experimental data from metallic silver, and the 'excess' electron will join all the conduction electrons and achieve thermal equilibrium. Sometimes the energy spectrum of emitted electrons (Auger electrons) is informative, and even just a few eV above the edge energy (which is over 20,000 eV) that electron may leave the sample.
Once the electron is emitted, of course, the atom decays back to the ground state by electron transitions. The outer orbitals may be undisturbed by the event, but they respond to an aftershock as that inner electron is replaced.
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$\begingroup$ Nice answer (+1) Could you elaborate why higher energy photons have more chance to eject the innermost 1S electron? Since collision with any outer electron is probabilistic not depending on photon energy, how does having more energy allows the photon to "reach" the 1S electron that a lower energy photon cannot do? $\endgroup$– JamesCommented Sep 18 at 1:42
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1$\begingroup$ @James The high energy is required because the energy of the inner electrons is that low; removing the electron from the inner shell means promoting its energy to an unoccupied state (or beyond the binding energy of the nuclear charge that is attracting that electron). It just takes that much energy to pry the inner electron out of its deep hole. $\endgroup$– Whit3rdCommented Sep 18 at 9:50
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$\begingroup$ thank you. Is it possible also possible to eject any arbitrary middle layer electron, e.g. to eject a $2P_x$ electron in an $N=4$ atom? $\endgroup$– JamesCommented Sep 18 at 16:10
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1$\begingroup$ @James That's a little harder; with strong applied B field, you can magnetically split P orbitals, and with fine-tuning of the exciting input photon energy could plausibly claim high likelihood of a particular electron being ejected 1S is the easy target scenario. $\endgroup$– Whit3rdCommented Sep 19 at 9:42