The photoelectric effect is defined to strip electrons from a surface by high-frequency photons, independent of the intensity of the photons. However, each atom has electron orbitals that represent different energy levels that the electron has to go through until the electron goes to a high enough energy level that it would break through the EM force attracting the electron to the nucleus(unless enough time elapses that the electron will go to a lower energy state and emit a photon for each energy level.) I also get that the photoelectric effects works based on the work function which depends on the ionization energy of the material chosen for the electrons to bounce off. So my question is that, does the photoelectric effect work for only valence electrons? If not, why doesn't the element selected turn into plasma? Would the material chosen all be positive ions once all electrons possible have been bounced off the selected material? If I chose an element like lithium or beryllium, why would a high-frequency photon be required for a low-energy state?
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