MeasurementBlog

I’m old enough to remember Neils Bohr (actually had the pleasure of hearing him lecture at MIT in the 1960s) but I first learned about him in my Atomic Physics course when we discussed the model of atomic structure that he first proposed early in 1913. He was one of the giants in 20th Century Physics and would be amazed at what’s been done in just the past few years.

From Rice University in Houston Texas, USA comes a remarkable story of a new development in modeling atomic structure and imaging it. It really brings back memories to me!

Check out the short video below, then look at the rest of the story or CLICK HERE to get the details from the Rice University website.

The research is available online in Physical Review Letters and may be viewed by CLICKING HERE.(Physical Review Letters, 20 June 2008, Volume 100, Number 24, Article (240407) Realization of Localized Bohr-Like Wave Packets, J. J. Mestayer, B. Wyker, J. C. Lancaster, F. B. Dunning, C. O. Reinhold, S. Yoshida, and J. Burgdörfer, Published 20 June 2008)

As described in a Rice University News Release:

“In a sufficiently large system, the quantum effects at the atomic scale can transition into the classical mechanics found in Bohr’s model,” said lead researcher Barry Dunning, Rice’s Sam and Helen Worden Professor of Physics and Astronomy. “Using highly excited Rydberg atoms and a series of pulsed electric fields, we were able to manipulate the electron motion and create circular, planet-like states.”

The team included members from Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Vienna University of Technology.

Using lasers, the researchers excited potassium atoms to extremely high levels. Using a carefully tailored series of short electric pulses, the team was then able to coax the atoms into a precise configuration with one point-like, “localized” electron orbiting far from the nucleus. In fact, the atoms are true atomic giants, with diameters approaching one millimeter.

“Our measurements show that the electrons remain localized for several orbits and behave much as classical particles,” Dunning said.

Dunning said the work has potential applications in next-generation computers and in the study of classical and quantum chaos.

Co-authors include Rice graduate students Jeffery Mestayer and Brendan Wyker, Rice postdoctoral researcher Jim Lancaster, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Carlos Reinhold and the Vienna University of Technology’s Shuhei Yoshida and Joachim Burgdörfer.

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the Robert A. Welch Foundation, the Department of Energy and the Austrian Science Fund.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Education, Organizations, Resource, Website.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.