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Physics

A New Look at the Hydrogen Wave Function

Christopher Smeenk

Published May 20, 2013• 6 citations
Publisher

Abstract

A newly-developed "quantum microscope" uses photoionization and an electrostatic magnifying lens to directly observe the electron orbitals of an excited hydrogen atom.
DOI
10.1103/physics.6.58

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To describe the microscopic properties of matter, quantum mechanics uses wave functions, whose structure and time dependence is governed by the Schrödinger equation. In atoms the charge distributions described by the wave function are rarely observed. The hydrogen atom is unique, since it only has one electron and, in a dc electric field, the Stark Hamiltonian is exactly separable in terms of parabolic coordinates (η, ξ, φ). As a result, the microscopic wave function along the ξ coordinate that exists in the vicinity of the atom, and the projection of the continuum wave function measured at a macroscopic distance, share the same nodal structure. In this Letter, we report photoionization microscopy experiments where this nodal structure is directly observed. The experiments provide a validation of theoretical predictions that have been made over the last three decades.
With an aim at the abstract conception of wave functions for hydrogen atom in quantum mechanics,this paper suggests the radial distribution,angular distribution and spatial distribution function of hydrogen atom electronic cloud,and also,Matlab software is used to plot their corresponding distribution charts.The analytical results indicate that the distribution patterns of hydrogen atom electronic clouds are co-determined by the radial and angular probability distribution,and that the electronic cloud distribution density is so uneven that the orbit trace can be observed.Accordingly,this method can reveal the radial,angular and spatial probability distribution laws of hydrogen atom electronic clouds intuitionally,whereby a new thinking way for analyzing the abstract wave function visualization in quantum mechanics is provided in this paper.