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Energy levels for an electron in an atom: ground state and excited states. After absorbing energy , an electron may "jump" from the ground state to a higher energy excited state. Part of a series of articles about
The configuration that corresponds to the lowest electronic energy is called the ground state. Any other configuration is an excited state. As an example, the ground state configuration of the sodium atom is 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 1, as deduced from the Aufbau principle (see below).
Energy levels for an electron in an atom: ground state and excited states. After absorbing energy, an electron may jump from the ground state to a higher-energy excited state. The ground state of a quantum-mechanical system is its stationary state of lowest energy; the energy of the ground state is known as the zero-point energy of the system.
An atom can have a ground state with two incompletely filled subshells which are close in energy. The lightest example is the chromium (Cr) atom with a 3d 5 4s electron configuration. Here there are six unpaired electrons all of parallel spin for a 7 S ground state. [5]
Gaseous chromium has a ground-state electron configuration of 3d 5 4s 1. It is the first element in the periodic table whose configuration violates the Aufbau principle. Exceptions to the principle also occur later in the periodic table for elements such as copper, niobium and molybdenum. [17]
The rule then predicts the electron configuration 1s 2 2s 2 2p 6 3s 2 3p 6 3d 9 4s 2, abbreviated [Ar] 3d 9 4s 2 where [Ar] denotes the configuration of argon, the preceding noble gas. However, the measured electron configuration of the copper atom is [Ar] 3d 10 4s 1. By filling the 3d subshell, copper can be in a lower energy state.
Note that these electron configurations are given for neutral atoms in the gas phase, which are not the same as the electron configurations for the same atoms in chemical environments. In many cases, multiple configurations are within a small range of energies and the irregularities shown below do not necessarily have a clear relation to ...
The direction of the red arrow indicates the order of state filling. Although it is sometimes stated that all the electrons in a shell have the same energy, this is an approximation. However, the electrons in one subshell do have exactly the same level of energy, with later subshells having more energy per electron than earlier ones. This ...