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Essentially what the title is.

Although I know de Broglie's standing wave model for electron orbits has problems, I have a question regarding why atoms will not absorb photons not of the specific discrete wavelength required for electorn orbit transition for that particular atom.

Is the reason that de Broglie proposed for the non-absorption that as soon as the electron absorbs this energy, it is unstable in non-standing wave format and immediately defaults back to the standing wave condition with the re-release of the incident photon, and hence no effective absorption? Or do the electron and photon just not interact entirely since it is energetically non-favourable?

Thanks!

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  • $\begingroup$ Atoms do interact with other energies than those that correspond to electronic transitions. They simply have much smaller optical cross sections at those energies. Some of those interactions (like Rayleigh scattering) had been understood classically before quantum mechanical models were even developed. If you want to know what de Broglie was thinking, then the best source are obviously his own publications. As to the question what an electron does in the de Broglie model... that's pure fantasy. The model is false and electrons, photons and atoms do not work the way the model proposes. $\endgroup$
    – FlatterMann
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 5:32
  • $\begingroup$ alone de Broglie model is not enough to describe the processes of absorbing or reflecting photons $\endgroup$
    – Aslan Monahov
    Commented Sep 26, 2022 at 6:55

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What is really meant in question is Bohr model of atom rather than the de Broglie hypothesis that particles are waves that can be assigned frequency and wave vector in terms of their momentum and energy as $E=\hbar\omega$ and $\mathbf{p}=\hbar\mathbf{k}$.

Is the reason that de Broglie proposed for the non-absorption that as soon as the electron absorbs this energy, it is unstable in non-standing wave format and immediately defaults back to the standing wave condition with the re-release of the incident photon, and hence no effective absorption? Or do the electron and photon just not interact entirely since it is energetically non-favourable?

Bohr model simply postulates selection rules, that is the transitions occur only between the states that correspond to standing waves.

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