National Research Nuclear University MEPhI (Moscow Engineering Physics Institute)

Associate Professor Andrey OLCHAK, DSc

EdEx Course “How Our World Is Designed?”

Supporting material

Inside the Atom: Quants and Waves

What the knowledge about molecules and atoms, as elementary bricks of which the surrounding
us substances (the air and other gases, water and other liquids, all possible solids and all
biological objects) and we ourselves are made off, gave us in the practical sense?
Very much – already by the end of 19-th century!
1) An understanding of the heat as the motion of those atoms and molecules and an
understanding of the motion as the source of both, mechanical and internal (thermal)
energy, which opened the way to creating effective heat engines driving our vehicles
nowadays.
2) An understanding of molecules as the elementary particles of all chemical agents and
atoms as some bricks of which all the molecules are constructed of, which has lead to a
fantastic progress in chemistry and to the creation of plenty of new chemicals and
materials.
However, one question at the beginning of 20-th century was remaining open: the atoms
themselves, are they really elementary, or they also have some internal structure? And what are
the forces, keeping atoms together in molecules and in solids?
Physics by the end of 19-th century knew about two types of forces existing in the Nature. The
first one – gravity – seemed to be too weak at the atomic scale to produce binding energies of
~10–19 J per atom, which are necessary to keep atoms together, as it was already clearly known
from chemistry and thermodynamics.
The other candidate was the electromagnetic force. It is strong enough to produce necessary
binding energies, but, as it was also evident from experiments and practical experience, atoms
and molecules at the normal conditions are electrically neutral. However, by the end of 19-th
century it became also evident that inside atoms there are certain electric charges, both negative
and positive. Where from this evidence came? The first evidence was the discovery of
radioactivity: some unusual emanations coming most probably from inside atoms of some newly
discovered in chemistry elements, such as uranium or radium.

Important contribution to this discovery was made by the French researchers Antoine Henry
Becquerel, Pierre Currie and Marie Sklodowska-Curie.
 At the very end of the 19-th century (1899), Ernest Rutherford (1871-1937)
experimentally proved that at least a part of those emanations has an electric
charge, as they are deflecting in a magnetic field.
He classified all of such emanations into three categories:
α-rays → with positive electric charge and mass, very close to the mass of
the helium atom (mα ~ mHe) occupying in the periodical table of chemical
elements the position with the number 2.
β-rays → with negative electric charge and a mass much smaller than even
the mass of a hydrogen atom (mβ/mH ~ 5·10–4). Today we usually call these particles electrons.
γ-rays → they have neither electric charge, nor mass. Today we know that they are actually the
portions (quanta) of electromagnetic radiation having the same nature as the light and radio-
waves, but with very high energies.
For understanding the atomic structure the first two sorts of rays – α and β – were especially
important. Evidently, they have nowhere to originate from but the depth of atoms and they are
electrically charged!
The later researches proved that all the negatively charged β - particles have absolutely the same
mass (mβ = 9.1·10–31 kg) and carry absolutely the same electric charge (e = –1.6·10–19 C).
α-particles have much bigger mass (mα ~ 0.75·104mβ), and carry the electric charge exactly twice
as big as the charge e of β-particles, but positive.
The value of the electric charge e = 1.6•10–19 Coulomb we call now the elementary charge, as
neither before nor after we never observed in any experiment a particle or a body with charge
less than the elementary one or even not multiple to (divisible by) it.
It became clear that atoms do contain some parts with electric charges inside, both negative and
positive, which are kept together by electrostatic Coulombs forces. From the fact that all liquids
and solids on Earth have comparable mass density (ρ ~ 103–104 kg/m3, here we do not consider
porous materials, containing air), and it is practically impossible to compress them sufficiently, it
is clear that the interaction potential between atoms
must look approximately as shown in the figure,
which we have already considered in our previous
episodes.
Such a potential can be produced by some uneven
distribution of electric charge inside of the atoms.
The question is – how the mass and charge are
exactly distributed inside the atom?
The answer came from the new experiment performed by Ernest Rutherford in 1912. In this
experiment sir Rutherford bombarded a very thin gold foil with the accelerated in an electric
field α-particles and found out that some small, but quite measurable part of the fast α-particles
was reflected by the thin foil practically back! That may be possible only in the case if they come
across some very small but massive positively charged objects – much smaller than atoms in size
though having the mass comparable to that of
the atoms. Rutherford called those objects
atomic nuclei. The positively charged nuclei
must be surrounded by negatively charged
particles – electrons, From Rutherford
experiments and – more precisely – from later
experiments performed using charged particle
accelerators it became possible to calculate the
parameters of the atomic nuclei. It became
clear that the structure of atoms reminds (though at a much smaller scale) the structure of our
Solar system:
 Typical size of an atom equals to ~10–10 m.
 It contains a much smaller nucleus (~10–15 m ≪10–10 m), where practically
all the atom’s mass is concentrated and carrying positive electric charge.
 Nucleus is surrounded by the very light negatively charged electrons (earlier
also known as the β-particles).
 The number of electrons is exactly equal to the positive charge of nucleus and exactly
coincides with the position number of the elements in the periodical table of chemical
elements, named after Dmitry Mendeleev (1834–1907).

However, the planetary model of the atom, despite being extraordinarily attractive, came across a
serious problem: according to the Laws of Classical Electrodynamics (Maxwell laws) such a
structure simply cannot exist! Why? The charged particles (electrons), moving around the
nucleus along circular orbits, do have centripetal acceleration and by the classical laws of
electrodynamics must emit electromagnetic radiation, thus, loosing its energy! It is not a difficult
task to calculate how long will it take for an electron to lose all its energy and to fall onto the
nucleus. The calculated time is ~10–11 sec. It means that no such atoms can exist. But they do!
Solution for this problem was proposed practically the next year
after the Rutherford’s experiment by Danish theoretician Niels Bohr
(1885–1962), based on the so called “quantum hypothesis”. His
theory was based on certain assumptions having seemingly no solid
foundation, called later Bohr postulates:
1. Electrons in atom may exist only on certain stationary orbits,
having certain energies En (n = 1, 2, 3, …). When being on this orbit
electron does not radiate at all, despite all classical electrodynamics
laws.
2. When changing the orbit from one with energy En to another with energy Em < En electron
emits a portion of electromagnetic radiation (now we call such portions photons) with the
frequency v = (En – Em )/h
The letter “h” here stays for the Plank constant (h = 6.6·10–34J·s), introduced earlier (in 1900)
by Swiss theoretician Max Plank (1858–1947) to explain another physical mystery related to
some strange properties of the electromagnetic radiation from heated bodies, which also could
not be explained within the framework of classical electrodynamics.
Other Bohr postulates are:
3. Parameters of the stationary orbits (the radius R, electron speed V) are defined by the
classical Newton Laws.
4. The permitted orbits are those, at which the electron has orbital momentum, equal to a
multiple of the Plank constant, divided by 2π:
mVR = hn/2π (n = 1, 2, 3, …)
Though the Bohr postulates seem to be very far from what we may call “well based”, they do not
only explain why atoms do not collapse, but also allow to precisely(!) calculate the linear
spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by heated hydrogen gas, which from the classical
theory point of view looks completely mysterious.

The idea of Max Plank that electromagnetic radiation is emitted by electrons only in certain
portions (later named quanta or photons) with the energy directly connected to their frequency v
and wavelength λ: E = hv = hc/λ (here c = 3·108 m/s – the speed of
electromagnetic waves (speed of the light)), was later called the Quantum
Hypothesis. It was used by Niels Bohr to save the planetary model of the atom
and to explain the hydrogen emission spectrum. It also was used by young Swiss
theoretician Albert Einstein (1879–1955) to explain the physics of the so called
photo-electron effect (in 1905). It is for this result Einstein was later awarded
with the Noble Prize.
According to the quantum hypothesis, the electromagnetic radiation, which in
classical theory is considered as a continuous wave, has also some properties
reminding of material particles, as it is emitted in portions (photons), having certainly defined
energies E = hv and momenta P = h/λ. In case when the density of photons is high and their
wavelength is also big enough – they overlap each other and, thus, look to a casual observer as a
continuous wave. At such conditions the classical theory works very well.
But if the number of photons is not big and their size, defined by the wavelength, is also rather
small – in such conditions they remind more the separate particles than a continuous wave.
The next important logical step in advancing of the quantum theory was
made in 1923 by French Duke Louis de Broglie (1892–1987). He proposed a
quite logical assumption: if each portion of electromagnetic wave with the
length λ can be associated with a particle, having the energy E = hv and
momenta P = h/λ, then probably it would be fair to assume that any micro-
object, which we considered to be definitely a particle, with certain
coordinates, momentum and energy (for example – the electron) should also
have some properties of a wave, revealed at the micro-scale, and the
wavelength of this associated with the particle wave is defined by absolutely
the same equation as for the photon: λ = h/P.
The visible experimental consequence of this assumption must be the fact
that electrons at certain conditions should behave like optical waves: for
example they should be diffracted by small holes or by periodical structures
(like crystals). And the diffraction of electrons is indeed observed
experimentally! To observe the diffraction of electrons one has to use quite
slow, low energy electrons, as the visibility and scale of diffraction picture
depends on the wavelength, which is higher for slow electrons : λ = h/P =
h/mV. Nowadays such experiments are easily performed by students studying atomic physics,
for example, at our university – NRNU MEPhI. Directing a flow of slow electrons on a screen
with a small opening, they observe on the located downstream luminescent screen a picture of
bright and dark circles – i.e. a typical optical diffraction picture!
More complicated is to observe the diffraction of electrons on periodical structures (like
crystals), but the resulting diffraction pictures in this case are even more impressing! Some
experimenters even say that electron diffraction visualizes the structure of the target crystal!
For our course it is important to note, that the diffraction experiments provide demonstrative
evidence of the fact that electrons under certain conditions do not have particular trajectories,
unlike material points that should always have certain trajectories in classical mechanics.
Absolutely identical to each other electrons, produced by the same source, having initially one
and the same speed, after passing a small opening finally show up at different points of the
luminescent screen or photo plate. Moreover, they can reach different points having periodical
character (circles, for example) with different probabilities (bright areas – many electrons
reached them, dark areas – no electrons). It means that, in contrary to what we were accustomed
to think, the results of experiments performed with identical starting conditions in micro-world
are not necessarily the same.
It consequently means that at the sub-atomic level it is simply meaningless to try to describe the
motion in terms of coordinates or velocities of particles – the only concept we may try to talk
about is the probability to find an object in this or that place with this or that velocity. At the
same time it would be desirable still to use for the physical description of micro-world the most
effective affordable to us mathematical apparatus that had proven its strength and effectiveness
in classical mechanics and classical electrodynamics – the CALCULUS. So, the task can be
formulated in the following terms: we have to find some differential equation on some function
Ψ (x,y,z, t), defining the probability to find a micro-particle at this or that point (x, y, z) at this or
that moment of time t: And this task was solved in 1926 by Austrian physicist Erwin
Schroedinger (1887–1961). You may see this equation (without comments) below:

To understand the notation in this equation and to get learned how to solve it for this or that
particular case one needs much more knowledge in Calculus and in quantum mechanics. Those
who are interested in this topic will easily find all necessary literature in the Internet making
search requests with the corresponding key words: quantum mechanics, Schroedinger
equation.
Here we only want to state the Schroedinger equation and the quantum mechanics as an
approach allowing us to understand the structure of atoms and the character of chemical bonds.
We may say that the whole chemistry can be derived from the Schroedinger equation. Moreover,
all the semiconductor physics forming the base of all our electronics is completely quantum.
Without quantum mechanics we would have no TV, no computers, no mobile phones and no
other electronic gadgets. It is hard to disagree with Erwin Schroedinger, who used to say that it
was a “Great Mercy of the God” that we were “allowed” to penetrate the mystery of quantum
structure of sub-atomic world!