[Phys-L] Delay in photoelectric effect?

[Savinainen Antti <antti.savinainen@kuopio.fi>]

Hi,

it is again a time in the year when I'm teaching early quantum mechanics for 
the IB and Finnish syllabus HS students. We just finished discussing the 
photoelectric effect and a question arised: does the lack of time delay in the 
process really mean "no time whatsoever"? Could it be that the time delay is so 
small that it cannot be measured using the available technology? Or is it 
really a process which takes exactly zero time? My physical intuition (well, 
for what it's worth) would suggest that it would take *some* time, although 
clearly much less than classically anticipated.

For comparison, it is possible to monitor electrons participating in a chemical 
reaction in real time (e.g., <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21887417>). 
This was not feasible, say, 50 years ago but it is now. 

Regards,

Antti Savinainen, PhD
Finland
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