When light (photon) is reflected the the original photon is absorbed by an electron and then emitted again. Does this "new" photon have the same wavelength, frequency etc. as the original?
[Physics] During reflection does the emitted photon have same properties
opticsreflectionvisible-light
Best Answer
Like any quantum field you can approximate light as either a particle or a wave. However you need to be clear that both are just approximations to the true nature of light and like all approximations they work well in some circumstances and badly in others.
In this case the photon model is a poor way to describe the process of reflection. Reflection doesn't involve photons being absorbed then re-emitted. You're correct that the oscillating light wave of the light interacts with electrons in the reflector, and the resulting oscillating dipoles reradiate light. However, while this is easily described using a wave model it's hard to describe using photons. As a general rule the photon model works well when light is exchanging energy with something so for example it would be a good model if the light was ejecting photoelectrons from the mirror. When we're studying the propagation of light the wave model is a far better approximation.
So I don't think your question can usefully be answered as it's currently phrased. However we can say that the reflected light has approximately the same frequency as the incident light. A say approximately because in principle there are effects that could change the frequency. For example if the mirror is floating in zero-G then the momentum change when the light is reflected will cause the mirror to accelerate by a tiny amount and therefore red shift the reflected light by a tiny amount. In most circumstances we can ignore these small effects.