Can an electron stay in its excited state? [ENDORSED]

[Abby Lam 3F]

Is there ever a situation in which an electron gets excited to the next level and stays in the next level? In other words, is it possible for an electron, say in n=1, to get excited to n=2 and stay in n=2, and no photon would be emitted?

[Ryan_Page_1J]

I don't believe so. Electrons only stay in an excited state for a very short amount of time. Usually a couple of nanoseconds.

[alebenavides]

I remember briefly learning this in high school and no an electron cannot stay in its excited state for a long time.

[Kiran Singh 3A]

I believe that electrons in their excited states are too unstable to stay in the excited state. The additional energy that the electrons contain will be spontaneously emitted because electrons tend to rearrange themselves to their ground state.

[Vanshika Bhushan 1A]

Atoms and electrons become excited and shift to an energetically higher quantum state by putting energy into the atom. A vacancy is created in the electron shell, which can be filled again. Each quantum level can only be populated with a certain number of electrons. The energy added to the atom needs to be released to the environment by emitting photons until the electron reaches the ground state again. Electrons can not stay in the excited state.

[Aria Movassaghi 1A]

Typically no, they will stay there only for a brief period of time I believe.

[derickngo3d]

Nope, the ground state of electrons is usually favored.

[Brenda Silva 1B]

Electrons would not stay in their excited state for a long period of time. They would have to return to their ground state.

[AmyHo2K]

No, because electrons want to go back to their stable state which is their ground state.

[Mrudula Akkinepally]

No, I don't think so. As far as I understood, excited electrons always come back to their ground state.

[Julianna Shimabukuro 1D]

No. Electrons will eventually want to go back to their ground state. This was a question asked in Dr. Lavelle's discussion on Wednesday, but they cannot stay in their excited state for a long period of time and will eventually go back down to the ground state.

[Ashley Wagner 2A]

No, electrons will not stay in an excited state due to it wanting to be stable.

[105405231]

No, electrons will return back to their stable state (ground state).

[Jaden Ji 2K]

No, I think it has something to do with both the electron configuration of electrons and that the excited state is too unstable to remain in for long.

[AJForte-2C]

No, when an electron is in an excited it state it is also unstable. Eventually the electron will have to revert to its more stable position.

[Grace_Remphrey_2J]

Electrons do not stay in excited states for very long - they soon return to their ground states, emitting a photon with the same energy as the one that was absorbed.

[mia alexander 2K]

What exactly does it mean for an electron to be at its ground state?

[Eva Becker]

An electron is at its ground state when it is occupying its normal energy level; when excited, the electron can jump up to higher energy levels.

[Chem_Mod]

The electron returns to its ground state.

The more interesting question is why not?

Ans. The excited state is not stable as the positively charged nucleus electrostatically pulls the negatively charged electron back down to the ground state.