Atomic Physics and Nuclear Physics

Atomic Collisions

Atomic collisions are elementary collisions that occur between two atomic particles such as atoms, molecules, electrons or ions. This kind of collisions is two types, they are elastic collisions and inelastic collisions. In an Elastic collision the total energy remains the same before and after the collision, where the directions of motion of the particles are transformed and the kinetic energy is merely distributed among the particles. In an Inelastic collision the internal energy of the colliding particles will change where these particles go through transitions to different energy levels and the electronic state of an atom or a molecule is changed.