Ionization and Recombination?

Question

Sometimes an electron get pushed of its obit by a strong enough photon or from another electron that kicks it off. When this process, Ionization, the electron gets pushed away from its proton and freely wanders around but then immediately latches on to another lone proton, recombination, and now everything is back to normal.
I was wondering, is it possible for an electron to get Ionized and not recombinate for a long time? In other words, what if an electron gets Ionized and it keeps getting pushed around by photons and other electrons before it can latch on to a proton? is this possible, can an electron roam freely for a long time, say an hour or more? And what would happen to the atom if this is possible?
Please explain and thank you.

vorenhutz · Accepted Answer

sure it's possible. it happens in any gas that gets hot enough, for example - the resulting material is called a plasma. since the electrostatic force is so strong, a large sample of plasma is almost perfectly neutral, but on a smaller scale the charges are separated. Also metals are somewhat similar - they can be thought of as an electron gas confined within a solid lattice of metal ions.

Ionization and Recombination?

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