Hydrogen Spectra Ionization
We have seen what happens when an electron gains energy from its ground state. The electron goes
to its excited state, then falls back down emitting a photon. This has been when we have given
small amounts of energy to the electron. Something else happens if we give a large amount
of energy to an electron.
We set our equation to give us no y-intercept by setting E=0 at n=infinity.
The energies of the levels are negative, which shows that WE are supplying energy to the
electron to move it to its excited state.
The energy of an electron's ground state shows the amount of energy needed for the electron
to escape the atom. We need to keep E=0 at n=infinity, because if we moved the electron to
an infinitly high energy level, the electron should be able to become free. With a y-intercept,
that would mean we still had to supply more energy to the electron for it to become unbound
from the atom, but no energy levels would be available. In other words, this is not seen
experimentally.
Free electrons are said to be ionized. The energy it takes to remove an electron from its
ground state is called ionization energy.
The Hydrogen Spectra showed specific amounts of energy at low numbers of n (1, 2, 3, etc.).
As the n increases the energies seen look almost continuous.