7/22/2019 Energy Levels in Atoms

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Energy Levels of Electrons

As you may remember from chemistry, an
atom consists of electrons orbiting around a
nucleus. However, the electrons cannot
choose any orbit they wish. They are
restricted to orbits with only certain energies.
Electrons can jump from one energy level to
another, but they can never have orbits with
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energies other than the allowed energy levels.

Let's look at the simplest atom, a neutral

hydrogen atom. Its energy levels are given in
the diagram below. The x-axis shows the Click on animation to play
allowed energy levels of electrons in a
hydrogen atom, numbered from 1 to 5. The y-axis shows each level's energy in electron volts

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7/22/2019 Energy Levels in Atoms

(eV). One electron volt is the energy that an electron gains when it travels through a potential
difference of one volt (1 eV = 1.6 x 10-19 Joules).

Click on the image for a larger view

Electrons in a hydrogen atom must be in one of the allowed energy levels. If an electron is in
the first energy level, it must have exactly -13.6 eV of energy. If it is in the second energy
level, it must have -3.4 eV of energy. An electron in a hydrogen atom cannot have -9 eV, -8
eV or any other value in between.

Let's say the electron wants to jump from the first energy level, n = 1, to the second energy
level n = 2. The second energy level has higher energy than the first, so to move from n = 1
to n = 2, the electron needs to gain energy. It needs to gain (-3.4) - (-13.6) = 10.2 eV of
energy to make it up to the second energy level.

The electron can gain the energy it needs by absorbing light. If the electron jumps from the
second energy level down to the first energy level, it must give off some energy by emitting
light. The atom absorbs or emits light in discrete packets called photons, and each photon has
a definite energy. Only a photon with an energy of exactly 10.2 eV can be absorbed or
emitted when the electron jumps between the n = 1 and n = 2 energy levels.

The energy that a photon carries depends on its wavelength. Since the photons absorbed or
emitted by electrons jumping between the n = 1 and n = 2 energy levels must have exactly
10.2 eV of energy, the light absorbed or emitted must have a definite wavelength. This
wavelength can be found from the equation

E = hc/l,

where E is the energy of the photon (in eV), h is Planck's constant (4.14 x 10-15 eV s) and c
is the speed of light (3 x 108 m/s). Rearranging this equation to find the wavelength gives

l = hc/E.

A photon with an energy of 10.2 eV has a wavelength of 1.21 x 10-7 m, in the ultraviolet part
of the spectrum. So when an electron wants to jump from n = 1 to n = 2, it must absorb a
photon of ultraviolet light. When an electron drops from n = 2 to n = 1, it emits a photon of
ultraviolet light.

The step from the second energy level to the third is much smaller. It takes only 1.89 eV of
energy for this jump. It takes even less energy to jump from the third energy level to the
fourth, and even less from the fourth to the fifth.

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What would happen if the electron gained enough energy to make it all the way to 0eV? The
electron would then be free of the hydrogen atom. The atom would be missing an electron,
and would become a hydrogen ion.

The table below shows the first five energy levels of a hydrogen atom.

Energy Level Energy

1 -13.6 eV
2 -3.4 eV
3 -1.51 eV
4 -.85 eV
5 -.54 eV

Exercise 2. Find the wavelength of a photon emitted when an electron jumps from the n = 3
energy level down to the n = 2 energy level. Where is this photon in the electromagnetic
spectrum?

Exercise 3. The table below shows the energy levels of a singly ionized helium atom - an
ion with two protons, two neutrons, and one electron:

Energy Level Energy

1 -54.4 eV
2 -13.6 eV
3 -6.04 eV
4 -3.4 eV
5 -2.176 eV

How much energy must be given off when the electron

jumps from the second energy level down to the first energy level?

Exercise 4. What is wavelength of a photon emitted when an electron jumps from the
n = 2 to n = 1 energy level of a singly ionized helium atom? Where is this photon in the
electromagnetic spectrum?

You can use this method to find the wavelengths emitted by electrons jumping between
energy levels in various elements. However, finding the correct energy levels gets much more
difficult for larger atoms with many electrons. In fact, the energy levels of neutral helium are
different from the energy levels of singly ionized helium! Therefore, we will skip how to

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calculate all the energy levels for different atoms for now. The energy levels are published in
the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics if you want to look them up.

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