Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

The de Broglie Wavelength

The de Broglie Wavelength

In the macroscopic world, objects that are large enough to be seen by the naked eye follow the rules of classical physics. A billiard ball moving on a table will behave like a particle; it will continue traveling in a straight line unless it collides with another ball, or it is acted on by some other force, such as friction. The ball has a well-defined position and velocity or well-defined momentum, p = mv, which is defined by mass m and velocity v at any given moment. This is the typical...

Atomic Orbitals

Atomic Orbitals

An atomic orbital represents the three-dimensional regions in an atom where an electron has the highest probability to reside. The radial distribution function indicates the total probability of finding an electron within the thin shell at a distance r from the nucleus. The atomic orbitals have distinct shapes which are determined by l, the angular momentum quantum number. The orbitals are often drawn with a boundary surface, enclosing densest regions of the cloud.

The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom

The Quantum-Mechanical Model of an Atom

Shortly after de Broglie published his ideas that the electron in a hydrogen atom could be better thought of as being a circular standing wave instead of a particle moving in quantized circular orbits, Erwin Schrödinger extended de Broglie’s work by deriving what is now known as the Schrödinger equation. When Schrödinger applied his equation to hydrogen-like atoms, he was able to reproduce Bohr’s expression for the energy and, thus, the Rydberg formula governing hydrogen spectra. Schrödinger...

The Bohr Model

The Bohr Model

Following the work of Ernest Rutherford and his colleagues in the early twentieth century, the picture of atoms consisting of tiny dense nuclei surrounded by lighter and even tinier electrons continually moving about the nucleus was well established. This picture was called the planetary model since it pictured the atom as a miniature “solar system” with the electrons orbiting the nucleus like planets orbiting the sun. The simplest atom is hydrogen, consisting of a single proton as the nucleus...

Graphing the Wave Function

Graphing the Wave Function

Consider the wave equation for a sinusoidal wave moving in the positive x-direction. The wave equation is a function of both position and time. From the wave equation, two different graphs can be plotted.

Equations of Wave Motion

Equations of Wave Motion

Mathematically, the motion of a wave can be studied using a wavefunction. Consider a string oscillating up and down in simple harmonic motion, having a period T. The wave on the string is sinusoidal and is translated in the positive x-direction as time progresses. Sine is a function of the angle θ, oscillating between +A and −A and repeating every 2π radians. To construct a wave model, the ratio of the angle θ and the position x is considered.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Observation of kinetic mix enhancement in thin-shell OMEGA implosions.

Physical review. E·2025

Same author

Assessment of dermal sensitization by nickel salts in a novel humanized TLR-4 mouse model.

Journal of immunotoxicology·2024

Same author

Driving Alkali Rydberg Transitions with a Phase-Modulated Optical Lattice.

Physical review letters·2023

Same author

Fully kinetic simulations of strong steady-state collisional planar plasma shocks.

Physical review. E·2021

Same author

Evaluation of the skin-sensitizing potential of gold nanoparticles and the impact of established dermal sensitivity on the pulmonary immune response to various forms of gold.

Nanotoxicology·2020

Same author

DC electric fields in electrode-free glass vapor cell by photoillumination.

Optics express·2020

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 18, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids

Published on: May 27, 2020

Dependence of Rydberg-atom optical lattices on the angular wave function.

S E Anderson¹, G Raithel

¹Department of Physics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA. andsare@umich.edu

Physical Review Letters

|October 4, 2012

Summary

We studied how the shape of Rydberg atoms affects optical-lattice trapping potentials. The atom

Area of Science:

Atomic physics
Quantum mechanics
Laser physics

Background:

Ground-state atoms are pointlike relative to optical lattices.
Rydberg atom wave functions are large, spanning a significant portion of the lattice period.
This spatial extent introduces angular dependence into the trapping potential.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the dependence of optical-lattice trapping potentials on the angular part of Rydberg atom wave functions.
To experimentally measure this angular dependence for specific atomic states.

Main Methods:

Utilized a one-dimensional optical lattice with a 1064 nm wavelength.
Employed 85Rb Rydberg nD states (50≤n≤65) with specific (j, m(j)) levels.
Applied a transverse dc electric field to probe the angular dependence.

More Related Videos

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps

Published on: August 17, 2017

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation

Published on: February 4, 2017

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 18, 2026

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids

Excitonic Hamiltonians for Calculating Optical Absorption Spectra and Optoelectronic Properties of Molecular Aggregates and Solids

Published on: May 27, 2020

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps

Experimental Methods for Trapping Ions Using Microfabricated Surface Ion Traps

Published on: August 17, 2017

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation

Direct Imaging of Laser-driven Ultrafast Molecular Rotation

Published on: February 4, 2017

Main Results:

The optical-lattice trapping potential for Rydberg atoms was found to depend on the angular distribution of their wave functions.
Measured optical-lattice depths showed good agreement with theoretical predictions.

Conclusions:

The spatial extent of Rydberg atom wave functions is crucial for understanding their interaction with optical lattices.
Experimental measurements confirm theoretical models of angular-dependent trapping potentials.