What is the fate of a photon after it hits the retina and is absorbed by an Opsin Molecule?
In: Physics
It ceases to exist. It was a wave, the wave hit something, and the wave died while that something took the impact. It’s like asking what happens to the sound that hits your ear. It’s gone, the air just stopped vibrating as much, while your ear drum started to.
The photon was an excitation in the electromagnetic field, and it transferred that excitation to the molecule (thanks to its electrically charged electrons). The electromagnetic field just goes back to its normal unexcited state, that is, no photon.
The “excitation” transfered was its energy, momentum, and angular momentum /spin.
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