![This week, a group of physicists at the FOM institute in Amsterdam and the Max Born institute have managed to image the nodal structure of […]](/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/NEWSICON2-620x300.png "Wavefunction of Atomic Hydrogen Imaged Using New Microscopy Technique")
This week, a group of physicists at the FOM institute in Amsterdam and the Max Born institute have managed to image the nodal structure of the hydrogenic wavefunction using a technique first theorised 30 years ago. This technique, called photoionisation microscopy, uses ionised electron from hydrogen in an electric field to create an interference pattern showing the electronic structure of the atom.
First the atomic hydrogen is formed by dissociating hydrogen sulphide as hydrogen atoms are not chemically stable by themselves. The hydrogen was first excited into higher energy states (n=2 s and p states) using a pulsed laser. The electrons from these states of interest were then ionised using a UV laser. A voltage difference then accelerated the electrons toward the detector, which was placed orthogonally to the electric field. A series of lenses allowed this image to be magnified before the electrons reached the detector.
This allowed the group to compare the images produced to the theoretical wavefunctions produced with the Stark Hamiltonian, from which the similarity could be seen. A Chinese team has already made predictions for the atom in both magnetic and electric fields, and so further investigation of the features of the hydrogen wavefunction under these conditions should be possible using this new technique.
