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Question

During the photo electric effects electrons get ejected due to photons.if this process continues then at a certain point of time all the electrons should be ejected out.and thus even could affect the stability of the metal itself.but in real life it dose not happen.why?

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Solution

One general property of metals is that they are great conductors. This means that there are a large number of free electrons that are not tightly bound to the atoms in the metal. When a photon ejects an electron from the metal, there are a myriad of free electrons available to de-excite and become bound in the atom in the vacancy left by the ejected electron.

If the number of incident photons is large enough and there are not any free electrons left to fill the vacancies, the metal ascertains a net positive charge. In such a case, the work function, which is the minimum energy required to eject an electron from the metal, increases, because the electrons are more tightly bound. Hence, the energy of the incident photons would need to increase.


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