In a series of experiments, a gas of exotic molecules containingexactly one electron
each is investigated. It is found that:
• When the gas is cold (so all the molecules are in their groundstates) and illuminated
with light, it absorbs strongly at wavelengths 103.40nm,137.87nm and 248.16nm.
• When the gas is cold and illuminated with light of shortwavelength, the electrons are
ejected from the molecules as long as the wavelengths is lessthan 88.63nm.
• When the gas is heated, it emits light with 6 differentwavelengths.
(a) If we chose to set the potential energy outside of themolecule to be zero, how far
below zero energy is the ground state of the molecule?
(b) How many discrete energy level does the molecule have?
(c) What wavelengths of light does the heated gas emit?
(d) A free electron with kinetic energy of 2eV is captured bythe atom (which is originally ionized) and goes directly into theground state. What is the wavelength of the emitted photon?
Hint: Electrons can jump from one energy level to another byemitting/absorbing a photon whose energy is equal to the differencein energies between the two states.
