Internal Conversion
The usual method for an excited nucleus to go from the excited state to the ground state is by emission of gamma radiation. However, in some cases the gamma ray (photon) emerges from the nucleus only to interact with one of the innermost orbital electrons and, as a result, the energy of the photon is transferred to the electron. The gamma ray is then said to have undergone internal conversion. The conversion electron is ejected from the atom with kinetic energy equal to the gamma energy minus the binding energy of the orbital electron. An orbital electron then drops to a lower energy state to fill the vacancy, and this is accompanied by the emission of characteristic x-rays.