FOM Institute AMOLF, Science Park 104, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Phys Rev Lett. 2013 May 24;110(21):213001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.213001. Epub 2013 May 20.
To describe the microscopic properties of matter, quantum mechanics uses wave functions, whose structure and time dependence is governed by the Schrödinger equation. In atoms the charge distributions described by the wave function are rarely observed. The hydrogen atom is unique, since it only has one electron and, in a dc electric field, the Stark Hamiltonian is exactly separable in terms of parabolic coordinates (η, ξ, φ). As a result, the microscopic wave function along the ξ coordinate that exists in the vicinity of the atom, and the projection of the continuum wave function measured at a macroscopic distance, share the same nodal structure. In this Letter, we report photoionization microscopy experiments where this nodal structure is directly observed. The experiments provide a validation of theoretical predictions that have been made over the last three decades.
为了描述物质的微观性质，量子力学使用波函数，其结构和时间依赖性由薛定谔方程控制。在原子中，由波函数描述的电荷分布很少被观察到。氢原子是独特的，因为它只有一个电子，并且在直流电场中，Stark 哈密顿量可以根据抛物线坐标（η，ξ，φ）精确地分离。因此，在原子附近存在的沿 ξ 坐标的微观波函数，以及在宏观距离处测量的连续波函数的投影，具有相同的节点结构。在这封信中，我们报告了直接观察到这种节点结构的光致电离显微镜实验。实验验证了过去三十年来做出的理论预测。
