How can an atom or ion remember its initial state?

The experiment has found that in order to form the thin film of certain com pound by deposition, the same compound should be used for the target materi al. A stoichiometric mixture of components for forming the compound by soli d reaction as the target material won't do the work. It seems that the part icle emitted from the target remembers its initial state, the state when it is in the compound. By perturbation approximation, we estimated the life t ime of the initial state of the emitted particle, if the states of the part icle are represented only by the states of outer shell electrons. To elucid ate the experimental finding, other factors regarding the states of the emi tted particle may have to take into consideration.