Researchers measure electron orbitals of molecules in 3-D
Monday, October 5, 2015 - 08:30
in Physics & Chemistry
Many people will remember them from physics lessons at school: Often represented as colourful clouds or balloons, electron orbitals provide information on the whereabouts of the electrons in atoms and molecules. Scientists from the University of Graz, Forschungszentrum Jülich, and the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt have now succeeded in experimentally recording these structures in all three dimensions. They achieved this by further developing a method they had already applied two years ago to make these orbitals visible in two dimensions. Their findings have now been published in the scientific journal Nature Communications.