In this paper, we have studied the Maxwell radiation from the electron orbiting the nucleus in an atom such as hydrogen atom. The orbiting electron is thought as two oscillating dipoles: one on [Formula: see text]-axis and the other on [Formula: see text]-axis with the same frequency. We have derived the electromagnetic wave and calculated powers of the radiation from these two oscillating dipoles, and then determined the time period it takes for the electron to change its energy levels from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] due to the Maxwell radiation. Compared the time period due to the Maxwell radiation with the time period from the uncertainty principle, it is found that the two time periods are different from each other by about nine orders of magnitude. So, we are led to believe that the Maxwell theory could not be used in the quantum photo emission by the electron in an atom. Thus, we suggest that the quantum photo emission by the electron in an atom may be photon tunneling from the electron [Formula: see text] in an atom.
In this paper, we have studied the Maxwell radiation from the electron orbiting the nucleus in an atom such as hydrogen atom. The orbiting electron is thought as two oscillating dipoles: one on [Formula: see text]-axis and the other on [Formula: see text]-axis with the same frequency. We have derived the electromagnetic wave and calculated powers of the radiation from these two oscillating dipoles, and then determined the time period it takes for the electron to change its energy levels from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] due to the Maxwell radiation. Compared the time period due to the Maxwell radiation with the time period from the uncertainty principle, it is found that the two time periods are different from each other by about nine orders of magnitude. So, we are led to believe that the Maxwell theory could not be used in the quantum photo emission by the electron in an atom. Thus, we suggest that the quantum photo emission by the electron in an atom may be photon tunneling from the electron [Formula: see text] in an atom.
This paper develops and verifies a physics-first description of the hydrogen-atom transition from the L shell (n = 2) to the K shell (n = 1) by combining the historical Bohr model of atomic structure with classical Maxwell electrodynamics. Beginning with the Coulomb force, centripetal dynamics, and Bohr’s angular-momentum quantization condition, the analysis derives the allowed orbital radii, electron velocities, angular momenta, kinetic energies, electrostatic potential energies, and total bound-state energies of the hydrogen atom. For the n = 2 → n = 1 transition, the calculated energy difference is approximately 10.2 eV, corresponding through the Planck–Einstein relation ΔE = hν to a frequency of approximately 2.47 × 10¹⁵ Hz and a wavelength near 121.6 nm, consistent with the hydrogen Lyman-α transition. The emitted radiation is then examined through Maxwell’s equations and the vacuum constitutive relations. The resulting electromagnetic-wave description yields the transverse electric and magnetic fields together with the associated electromagnetic energy density, Poynting energy flux, momentum density, radiation pressure, and Maxwell stress tensor. In this way, the atomic energy difference obtained from the Bohr model is connected quantitatively to the classical propagation properties of the outgoing electromagnetic radiation. The derivation is mathematically consistent as a historical Bohr–Maxwell reconstruction, but it does not constitute a closed dynamical theory of spontaneous emission. The essential bridge between discrete atomic energy levels and the continuous Maxwell field is supplied by the quantum frequency condition ΔE = hν. Neither classical Maxwell electrodynamics nor Newtonian orbital mechanics independently derives this relation, and classical Maxwell theory does not by itself quantize the emitted radiation energy into individual photons. A complete treatment of spontaneous emission, transition probabilities, radiative lifetimes, and photon-field quantization requires quantum mechanics and ultimately quantum electrodynamics. Accordingly, the framework is presented as a verified correspondence between established limiting descriptions rather than as a replacement for Schrödinger wave mechanics, Dirac theory, or quantum electrodynamics. By clearly separating the atomic bound-state calculation, the quantum energy-frequency bridge, and the classical electromagnetic propagation problem, the analysis provides a rigorous conceptual and mathematical foundation for subsequent Maxwell–Schrödinger, Dirac–Maxwell, quantum-electrodynamic, Maxwell–Scretching, and Scretching Quantum Chain formulations of hydrogenic radiative transitions.
The time of the energy emission between two neighbouring electron levels in the hydrogen atom has been calculated first on the basis of the quantum aspects of the Joule-Lenz law, next this time is approached with the aid of the electrodynamical parameters characteristic for the electron motion in the atom. Both methods indicate a similar result, namely that the time of emission is close to the time period of the electromagnetic wave produced in course of the emission. As a by-product of calculations, the formula representing the radius of the electron microparticle is obtained from a simple combination of the expressions for the Bohr magnetic moment and a quantum of the magnetic flux.
In the first step, the Joule-Lenz dissipation energy specified for the electron transitions between two neighbouring quantum levels in the hydrogen atom has been compared with the electromagnetic energy of emission from a single level. Both the electric and magnetic vectors entering the Pointing vector of the electromagnetic field are referred to the one-electron motion performed along an orbit in the atom. In the next step, a similar comparison of emission rates is performed for the harmonic oscillator. Formally a full agreement of the Joule-Lenz and electromagnetic expressions for the energy emission rates has been attained. The case of the electron oscillator allowed us to perform a more direct comparison of the quantum approach to the emission rate with the classical electromagnetic theory.
In a previous paper, it was explained that the absorption and emission process (AE-process) of Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom must involve an electric charge (i.e., electron) transiting between atomic energy levels instead of quantum jumping; otherwise, there is no way to use the AE-process to predict the fine structure constant. In this paper, it is shown that (1) a complete oscillation of the atomic electron (i.e., an electric charge) and of the induced magnetic field must occur for Bohr’s hydrogen atom to emit electromagnetic radiation, and (2) an atomic electron (i.e., electric charge) of Bohr’s hydrogen atom can transit between energy levels without the atom emitting electromagnetic radiation.
Radiation can change the energy state of matter via three optical processes: spontaneous emission, absorption and stimulated emission. In spontaneous emission, an excited atomic or molecular state decays to a lower energy state with the emission of a photon of energy equal to the difference in the quantum state energies. Photon absorption is the reverse process, with a photon causing excitation from a lower to an excited quantum state. Stimulated emission was first proposed by Einstein in a paper published in 1917. He attempted to balance spontaneous emission and photon absorption, but could not get the correct balance without the postulated process of stimulated emission (see Section 4.2). With stimulated emission, an excited quantum state is stimulated to decay to a lower quantum state by an impinging photon. The existing photon survives with another identical photon being created (so that energy is conserved). The rates at which radiative transitions occur can be calculated using quantum mechanics. The time-dependent Schrodinger equation is used with the system wavefunction comprising time-varying linear combinations of the two wavefunctions for the lower and upper quantum states. In semi-classical treatments, an atom is treated quantum mechanically with the radiation field treated classically. There is a perturbation in energy associated with, say, the electric field of the radiation interacting with the electric dipole of the atom, though other interactions can be significant if the electric dipole interaction energy is small. In absorption, for example, a differential equation representing the change in ‘weighting’ of the wavefunction from the lower to upper state is obtained. A ‘time constant’ for the speed of change represents the rate of the radiative process. We examine the quantum mechanical nature of radiation absorption in Section 10.1 before discussing (Section 10.3) another important parameter arising with radiative transitions between discrete bound quantum states: the lineshape function. Quantum Theory of the Atom–Radiation Interaction An expression for the Einstein B-coefficient for photo-absorption is derived using quantum mechanics in this section. Einstein determined the detailed balance relationship between the rates of spontaneous emission, photo-absorption and stimulated emission when light interacts with an atom by considering an atomic system of two energy levels which are in equilibrium with a black-body radiation field. We use a semi-classical treatment where the atom is treated quantum mechanically and the radiation field is treated as a classical oscillating electric field.
We treat the interaction between an electromagnetic radiation bath and a material system in the semi-classical picture: the radiation is treated according to the Maxwell equations, but the process of emission/absorption is described through the concept of a photon; on the other hand, the material system is modelled according to quantum mechanics, assuming a discrete two-level energy spectrum. This very simple model allows one to elaborate the elementary theory of the absorption/emission coefficients, both for the spontaneous and for the stimulated processes which will be described within the electric dipole approximation. Selection rules for allowed transitions are eventually obtained and the nature of high-order transition is briefly outlined. Finally, a qualitative description of the light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is presented.