research paper on atomic structure

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Journal Menu

• Aims & Scope
• Editorial Board
• Reviewer Board
• Topical Advisory Panel
• Instructions for Authors
• Special Issues
• Article Processing Charge
• Indexing & Archiving
• Editor’s Choice Articles
• Most Cited & Viewed
• Journal Statistics
• Journal History
• Journal Awards
• Conferences
• Editorial Office

Journal Browser

• arrow_forward_ios Forthcoming issue arrow_forward_ios Current issue
• Vol. 12 (2024)
• Vol. 11 (2023)
• Vol. 10 (2022)
• Vol. 9 (2021)
• Vol. 8 (2020)
• Vol. 7 (2019)
• Vol. 6 (2018)
• Vol. 5 (2017)
• Vol. 4 (2016)
• Vol. 3 (2015)
• Vol. 2 (2014)
• Vol. 1 (2013)

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

Current Developments and Applications of Atomic Structure and Radiative Process Investigations

• Print Special Issue Flyer
• Special Issue Editors

Special Issue Information

Benefits of publishing in a special issue.

• Published Papers

A special issue of Atoms (ISSN 2218-2004).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2018) | Viewed by 31346

Share This Special Issue

Special issue editor.

Dear Colleagues,

The study of electronic structures and radiative processes in atoms, from neutrals to highly ionized species, has known a considerable development during the past few decades; new contributions arise from both experiment and theory. This appreciable progress was aided by greatly-improved, or even entirely-new, laboratory equipment, and by vastly expanded computer power, which has made possible the development of widely-refined atomic structure codes.

On the experimental side, the recent developments now allow measuring of atomic parameters with a very high accuracy. This is extremely useful to test the predictive power of theoretical models and to obtain a reliable absolute scale for spectroscopic data, such as radiative transition probabilities. Using laser spectroscopy, it is now possible to measure radiative lifetimes for excited atomic states with an accuracy of a few percent for many-electron atomic systems, thanks to the selective excitation avoiding cascading problems. In addition, the development of ion traps has opened the way towards new accurate experimental studies of much more acute effects on the atomic structures, such as hyperfine or isotope effects. Some derivatives of these devices, such as storage rings or electron-beam ion traps, are also in use. The former ones are very useful for the investigation of metastable states in lowly ionized atoms, of which lifetimes may range from milliseconds to years, while the latter ones are dedicated to the production and the analysis of highly charged ions.

On the theoretical side, an intense effort over the last few years has been directed toward developing methods to accurately and simultaneously account for relativistic and correlation effects in many-electron systems, both effects being intertwined in heavy atoms and ions. All the current state-of-the-art computational techniques developed for modeling complex atomic structures present the advantage of being complementary, since they employ different treatments of, for example, configuration interaction, relativistic effects and atomic orbital optimization. This complementarity offers a unique opportunity to assess the reliability of the theoretical results when experimental measurements are unavailable.

Accurate atomic structure and radiative data are essential ingredients for a wide range of research fields, as well as for major technological applications. Areas from laboratory spectroscopy to quantum processing, from plasma research applications in nuclear fusion to lighting research, as well as astrophysics and cosmology, critically depend on such data. However, many spectroscopic parameters still exhibit inconsistencies and inaccuracies, so significant efforts are continuing to improve data quality. Additionally, a substantial body of much-needed data is still absent from the published literature and from databases.

This Special Issue of Atoms will highlight the need for continuing studies on the atomic structures and radiative processes and will present some of the most recent theoretical and experimental works performed in this research field.

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website . Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form . Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atoms is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1500 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Atomic physics
• atomic structure
• atomic spectra
• Energy levels
• Radiative processes
• Transition probabilities
• Oscillator strengths
• Radiative lifetimes
• Hyperfine structure
• Isotope shifts
• Application of radiative data in astrophysics
• Application of radiative data in plasma physics
• Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
• Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
• Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
• External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
• e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here .

Published Papers (9 papers)

Jump to: Review , Other

Jump to: Research , Other

Jump to: Research , Review

Further Information

Mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

A quest for the universal atomic radii

• Original Research
• Published: 30 October 2021
• Volume 33 , pages 389–394, ( 2022 )

Cite this article

• Poonam Yadav 1 ,
• Hiteshi Tandon 1 ,
• Babita Malik 1 ,
• Vandana Suhag 2 &
• Tanmoy Chakraborty   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-3374-8125 3  

497 Accesses

2 Citations

Explore all metrics

Atomic radius is an important periodic descriptor used in understanding a variety of physico-chemical and bio-chemical processes. Numerous scales are suggested to define atomic radii. The aim of the current study is to find out the most reliable and universal scale among different (experimental and theoretical) scales of radii. For this, we have used different types of radii to compute some size-dependent physico-chemical atomic descriptors, i.e. electronegativity, global hardness, polarizability, and a real-world molecular descriptor, i.e. internuclear bond distance for some diatomic molecules. The computed properties are compared with available experimental values. Important periodic trends and the presence of relativistic effects are also verified for each set of atomic radii. This comparative study is valuable to get an idea about the most effective atomic radii.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save.

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Computation of absolute radii of 103 elements of the periodic table in terms of nucleophilicity index

Theoretical computation of normalised radii, density and global hardness as a function of orbital exponent

A scale of atomic magnetizability

Data availability.

All data generated or analysed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information file.

Cotton FA, Wilkinson G, Murillo CA, Bochmann M (2009) Advanced inorganic chemistry. Wiley-New York

Rahm M, Hoffmann R, Ashcroft NW (2016) Atomic and ionic radii of elements 1–96. Chem 22:14625–14632

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Chakraborty T, Gazi K, Ghosh DC (2010) Computation of the atomic radii through the conjoint action of the effective nuclear charge and the ionization energy. Mol Phys 108:2081–2092

Alvarez S (2013) A cartography of the van der Waals territories. Dalton Trans 42:8617–8636

Article   CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Meyer L (1870) Justus Liebigs Ann Chem 354

Bragg WL (1920) The arrangement of atoms in crystals. The London, Edinburgh, and Dublin Philosophical Magazine and Journal of Science 40:169–189

Pauling LC (1960) The nature of the chemical bond and the structure of molecules and crystals. An introduction to modern structural chemistry, 3rd ed., Cornell University Press, Ithaca, N.Y.

Slater JC (1930) Atomic shielding constants. Phys Rev 36:57

Froese C (1966) Hartree - Fock parameters for the atoms helium to radon. J Chem Phys 45:1417–1420

Clementi E, Raimondi DL, Reinhardt WP (1967) Atomic screening constants from SCF functions. II. Atoms with 37 to 86 electrons. J Chem Phys 47:1300–1307

Fisk C, Fraga S (1969) Atomic Radii Anal Fis 65:135

CAS   Google Scholar  

Larson AC, Waber JT (1969) Self-consistent field Hartree calculations for atoms and ions (Report LA-4297). Los Alamos Scientific Lab, N. Mex

Fischer CF (1972) Average-energy-of-configuration Hartree-Fock results for the atoms helium to radon. Atomic Data 4:301–399

Kammeyer CW, Whitman DR (1972) Quantum mechanical calculation of molecular radii. I. Hydrides of elements of periodic groups IV through VII. J Chem Phys 56:4419–4421

Fraga S, Karwowski J, Saxena KMS (1973) Hartree-Fock values of coupling constants, polarizabilities, susceptibilities, and radii for the neutral atoms, helium to nobelium. Atom Data Nucl Data Tables 12:467–477

Fischer CF (1973) Average–energy of configuration Hartree-Fock results for the atoms helium to radon. Atom Data Nucl Data Tables 12:87–99

Desclaux JP (1973) Relativistic Dirac-Fock expectation values for atoms with Z= 1 to Z= 120. Atom Data Nucl Data Tables 12:311–406

Boyd RJ (1977) The relative sizes of atoms. J Phys B: At Mol Phys 10:2283

Deb BM, Singh R, Sukumar N (1992) A universal density criterion for correlating the radii and other properties of atoms and ions. J Mol Struct: THEOCHEM 259:121–139

Article   Google Scholar  

Nath S, Bhattacharya S, Chattaraj PK (1995) Density functional calculation of a characteristic atomic radius. J Mol Struct: THEOCHEM 331:267–279

Ghosh DC, Biswas R (2002) Theoretical calculation of absolute radii of atoms and ions. Part 1. The atomic radii. Int J Mol Sci 3:87–113

Putz MV, Russo N, Sicilia E (2003) Atomic radii scale and related size properties from density functional electronegativity formulation. J Phys Chem A 107:5461–5465

Pyykkö P, Riedel S, Patzschke M (2005) Triple–bond covalent radii. Chem A Euro J 11:3511–3520

Ghosh DC, Biswas R, Chakraborty T, Islam N, Rajak SK (2008) The wave mechanical evaluation of the absolute radii of atoms. J Mol Struct: THEOCHEM 865:60–67

Pyykkö P, Atsumi M (2009) Molecular single–bond covalent radii for elements 1–118. Chem A Euro J 15:186–197

Mande C, Deshmukh P (1977) A new scale of electronegativity on the basis of calculations of effective nuclear charges from X-ray spectroscopic data. J Phys B: At Mol Phys 10:2293

Mande C, Chattopadhyay S, Deshmukh PC, Padma R, Deshmukh PC (1990) Spectroscopically determined electronegativity values for heavy elements. Pramana 35:397–403

Miller IJ (1987) The quantisation of the screening constant. Austr J Phys 40:329–346

Reed JL (1999) The genius of Slater’s rules. J Chem edu 76:802

Szarek P, Grochala W (2014) Most probable distance between the nucleus and HOMO electron: the latent meaning of atomic radius from the product of chemical hardness and polarizability. J Phys Chem A 118:10281–10287

Tandon H, Ranjan P, Chakraborty T, Suhag V (2020) Computation of absolute radii of 103 elements of the periodic table in terms of nucleophilicity index. J Math Chem 58:1025–1040

Tandon H, Chakraborty T, Suhag V (2021) A scale of absolute radii derived from electrophilicity index. Mol Phys 119:e1820594

Prasanna KG, Sunil S, Kumar A, Joseph J (2021) Theoretical atomic radii of elements (H-Cm): a non-relativistic study with Gaussian basis set using HF, post-HF and DFT methods. ChemRxiv. Preprint. https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv.13663337.v1

Coulson CA (1951) Critical survey of the method of ionic-homopolar resonance. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Math Phys Sci 207: 63–73

Fukui K (1982) Role of frontier orbitals in chemical reactions. Sci 218:747–754

Pauling L (1932) The nature of the chemical bond. IV. The energy of single bonds and the relative electronegativity of atoms. J Am Chem Soc 54:3570–3582

Mulliken RS (1934) A new electroaffinity scale; together with data on valence states and on valence ionization potentials and electron affinities. J Chem Phys 2:782–793

Gordy W (1946) A new method of determining electronegativity from other atomic properties. Phys Rev 69:604

Allred AL, Rochow EG (1958) A scale of electronegativity based on electrostatic force. J Inorg Nucl Chem 5:264–268

Simons G, Zandler ME, Talaty ER (1976) Nonempirical electronegativity scale. J Am Chem Soc 98:7869–7870

Nagle JK (1990) Atomic polarizability and electronegativity. J Am Chem Soc 112:4741–4747

Ghosh DC, Chakraborty T (2009) Gordy’s electrostatic scale of electronegativity revisited. J Mol Struct: THEOCHEM 906:87–93

Tandon H, Labarca M, Chakraborty T (2021) A scale of atomic electronegativity based on floating spherical gaussian orbital approach. ChemistrySelect 6:5622–5627

Allen LC (1989) Electronegativity is the average one-electron energy of the valence-shell electrons in ground-state free atoms. J Am Chem Soc 111:9003–9014

Islam N, Ghosh DC (2011) Spectroscopic evaluation of the global hardness of the atoms. Mol Phys 109:1533–1544

Pearson RG (1997) Chemical hardness. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim

Book   Google Scholar  

Mulliken RS (1952) Molecular compounds and their spectra. II J Am Chem Soc 74:811–824

Cárdenas C, Heidar-Zadeh F, Ayers PW (2016) Benchmark values of chemical potential and chemical hardness for atoms and atomic ions (including unstable anions) from the energies of isoelectronic series. Phys Chem Chem Phys 18:25721–25734

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Pearson RG (1988) Absolute electronegativity and hardness: application to inorganic chemistry. Inorg Chem 27:734–740

Robles J, Bartolotti LJ (1984) Electronegativities, electron affinities, ionization potentials, and hardnesses of the elements within spin polarized density functional theory. J Am Chem Soc 106:3723–3727

Ghosh DC, Islam N (2010) Semiempirical evaluation of the global hardness of the atoms of 103 elements of the periodic table using the most probable radii as their size descriptors. Int J Quantum Chem 110:1206–1213

Kaya S, Kaya C (2015) A new equation for calculation of chemical hardness of groups and molecules. Mol Phys 113:1311–1319

Yadav P, Tandon H, Malik B, Chakraborty T (2021) An alternative approach to compute atomic hardness. Theor Chem Acc 140:60

Dalgarno A (1962) Atomic polarizabilities and shielding factors. Adv Phys 11:281–315

Bonin KD, Kresin VV (1997) Electric-dipole polarizabilities of atoms, molecules, and clusters. World Scientific, Singapore

Teachout RR, Pack RT (1971) The static dipole polarizabilities of all the neutral atoms in their ground states. Atom Data Nucl Data Tables 3:195–214

Bonin KD, Kadar-Kallen MA (1994) Linear electric-dipole polarizabilities. Int J Modern Phys B 8:3313–3370

Chattaraj PK, Maiti B (2001) Electronic structure principles and atomic shell structure. J Chem Edu 78:811

Politzer P, Murray JS, Bulat FA (2010) Average local ionization energy: a review. J Mol Model 16:1731–1742

Safronova MS, Mitroy J, Clark CW, Kozlov MG (2015) Atomic polarizabilities AIP Conf Proc 1642:81–89

Schwerdtfeger P, Nagle JK (2019) Table of static dipole polarizabilities of the neutral elements in the periodic table. Mol Phys 117:1200–1225

Tandon H, Chakraborty T, Suhag V (2019) A new scale of atomic static dipole polarizability invoking other periodic descriptors. J Math Chem 57:2142–2153

Chakraborty T, Ghosh DC (2010) Computation of the internuclear distances of some heteronuclear diatomic molecules in terms of the revised electronegativity scale of Gordy. Eur Phys J D 59:183–192

Ray NK, Samuelsc L, Parr RG (1979) Studies of electronegativity equalization. J Chem Phys 70:3680–3684

Sanderson RT (1951) An interpretation of bond lengths and a classification of bonds. Science 114:670–672

Sanderson RT (1952a) An interpretation of bond lengths in alkali halide gas molecules. J Am Chem Soc 74:272–274

Sanderson RT (1952b) Electronegativities in inorganic chemistry. J Chem Edu 29:539

Sanderson RT (1955) Partial charges on atoms in organic compounds. Science 121:207–208

Pasternak A (1977) Electronegativity based on the simple bond charge model. Chem Phys 26:101–112

Parr RG, Borkman RF (1967) Chemical binding and potential-energy functions for molecules. J Chem Phys 46:3683–3685

Borkman RF, Parr RG (1968) Toward an understanding of potential-energy functions for diatomic molecules. J Chem Phys 48:1116–1126

Parr RG, Borkman RF (1968) Simple bond-charge model for potential-energy curves of homonuclear diatomic molecules. J Chem Phys 49:1055–1058

Borkman RF, Simons G, Parr RG (1969) Simple bond-charge model for potential-energy curves of heteronuclear diatomic molecules. J Chem Phys 50:58–65

Lovas FJ, Tiemann E (1974) Microwave spectral tables 1. Diatomic Molecules. J Phys Chem Ref Data 3:609–770

Pyykkö P (2012) Relativistic effects in chemistry: more common than you thought. Annu Rev Phys Chem 63:45–64

Balasubramanian K (1997a) Relativistic effects in chemistry: part A theory and techniques. John Wiley & Sons, New York

Google Scholar  

Balasubramanian K (1997b) Relativistic effects in chemistry: part B: applications. Wiley, New York

Emsley J (1991) The elements. Clarendon Press, Oxford

Download references

Acknowledgements

Dr. Tanmoy Chakraborty is thankful to Sharda University, and Dr. Hiteshi Tandon and Ms. PoonamYadav are thankful to Manipal University Jaipur for providing a research facility.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Chemistry, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, 300307, Rajasthan, India

Poonam Yadav, Hiteshi Tandon & Babita Malik

DIT University, Dehradun, 248009, Uttarakhand, India

Vandana Suhag

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, School of Basic Sciences and Research, Sharda University, 201310, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Tanmoy Chakraborty

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceptualization: Tanmoy Chakraborty; data curation: Hiteshi Tandon; methodology: Tanmoy Chakraborty; formal analysis: Poonam Yadav; investigation: Poonam Yadav; visualization: Hiteshi Tandon, Poonam Yadav; writing — original draft: Poonam Yadav; writing — review and editing: Hiteshi Tandon, Tanmoy Chakraborty; resources: Hiteshi Tandon; supervision: Tanmoy Chakraborty, Babita Malik, Vandana Suhag.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Hiteshi Tandon or Tanmoy Chakraborty .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (PDF 711 KB)

Rights and permissions.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Yadav, P., Tandon, H., Malik, B. et al. A quest for the universal atomic radii. Struct Chem 33 , 389–394 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-021-01850-7

Download citation

Received : 03 September 2021

Accepted : 20 October 2021

Published : 30 October 2021

Issue Date : April 2022

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11224-021-01850-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Atomic radii
• Electronegativity
• Polarizability
• Internuclear bond distance
• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

Maintenance work is planned from 22:00 BST on Monday 16th September 2024 to 22:00 BST on Tuesday 17th September 2024.

During this time the performance of our website may be affected - searches may run slowly, some pages may be temporarily unavailable, and you may be unable to access content. If this happens, please try refreshing your web browser or try waiting two to three minutes before trying again.

We apologise for any inconvenience this might cause and thank you for your patience.

Chemistry Education Research and Practice

Exploring conceptual frameworks of models of atomic structures and periodic variations, chemical bonding, and molecular shape and polarity: a comparison of undergraduate general chemistry students with high and low levels of content knowledge.

* Corresponding authors

a Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Road, Hsinchu, Taiwan E-mail: [email protected]

b Science Education Centre, University of Missouri-Columbia, 321 Townsend Hall, Columbia, USA E-mail: [email protected]

The purpose of the study was to explore students’ conceptual frameworks of models of atomic structure and periodic variations, chemical bonding, and molecular shape and polarity, and how these conceptual frameworks influence their quality of explanations and ability to shift among chemical representations. This study employed a purposeful sampling technique and used three diagnostic instruments for conceptual understanding to determine the students’ level of content knowledge of the related concepts. Six student interviews were analyzed to portray students’ conceptual frameworks in high and low content knowledge (HCK and LCK, respectively) groups. The study’s major findings revealed that moving from a high toward a low level of content knowledge, the quality of students’ explanations declined, as did their ability to reconcile new information to their existing knowledge frameworks. Three essential concepts – models of atomic structure, effective core charge and principles of electrostatic force, and quantum mechanics descriptions – were identified that may explain students’ failure to learn the necessary aspects of molecular geometry and polarity. This study provides empirical evidence of how students’ content knowledge influences their understanding about molecular polarity. The findings have implications for college chemistry education with respect to teaching concepts about molecular polarity.

Article information

Download citation, permissions.

C. Wang and L. H. Barrow, Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. , 2013,  14 , 130 DOI: 10.1039/C2RP20116J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page .

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content .

Social activity

Search articles by author, advertisements.

• Diversity & Inclusion
• Community Values
• Visiting MIT Physics
• People Directory
• Faculty Directory
• Faculty Awards
• History of MIT Physics
• Policies and Procedures
• Departmental Committees
• Academic Programs Team
• Finance Team
• Meet the Academic Programs Team
• Prospective Students
• Requirements
• Employment Opportunities
• Research Opportunities
• Graduate Admissions
• Doctoral Guidelines
• Financial Support
• Graduate Student Resources
• PhD in Physics, Statistics, and Data Science
• MIT LEAPS Program
• Physics Student Groups
• for Undergraduate Students
• for Graduate Students
• Mentoring Programs Info for Faculty
• Non-degree Programs
• Student Awards & Honors
• Astrophysics Observation, Instrumentation, and Experiment
• Astrophysics Theory

Atomic Physics

• Condensed Matter Experiment
• Condensed Matter Theory
• High Energy and Particle Theory
• Nuclear Physics Experiment
• Particle Physics Experiment
• Plasma Physics
• Quantum Gravity and Field Theory
• Quantum Information Science
• Strong Interactions and Nuclear Theory
• Center for Theoretical Physics
• Affiliated Labs & Centers
• Program Founder
• Competition
• Donor Profiles
• Patrons of Physics Fellows Society
• Giving Opportunties
• Latest Physics News
• Physics Journal: Fall 2023 Edition
• Events Calendar
• Physics Colloquia
• Search for: Search

Atomic physics seeks to understand and control the quantum behavior of matter at the smallest scale. What are the fundamental properties of single atoms, ions, molecules, and photons? Once we combine them together, what are the laws governing emergent many-body phenomena such as superfluidity and magnetism? Can we create and study new states of matter that have never existed in nature before? And how can we exert control over quantum properties to engineer useful systems such as precise clocks, new sensors, fundamentally improved measurements, and new paradigms of quantum computation?

At MIT, researchers trap and manipulate individual ions, photons, spins, and clouds of atoms and molecules. They cool gases down to temperatures a million times colder than deep space, control and image matter at the level of single atoms, hunt for dark matter, tame single photons of light, and control atom-light interactions to generate entanglement and correlations among quantum particles. This research is made possible by an ever-expanding atomic physics toolbox, including ultra-stable lasers, atom and ion traps, nanofabrication of photonic structures, high-resolution microscopes, and optical tweezers.

The group is anchored by the NSF Center for Ultracold Atoms (CUA), a joint effort between atomic physicists at MIT and Harvard, and is also vitally involved in educational activities.

Current Faculty

Emeritus Faculty

Affiliated Labs & Centers

• MIT–Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms

Related News

Atoms on the edge

Scientists Shrunk the Gap Between Atoms to an Astounding 50 Nanometers

Physicists arrange atoms in extremely close proximity

• Next Article

Niels Bohr’s First 1913 Paper: Still Relevant, Still Exciting, Still Puzzling

• Article contents
• Figures & tables
• Supplementary Data
• Peer Review
• Reprints and Permissions
• Cite Icon Cite
• Search Site

Kenneth W. Ford; Niels Bohr’s First 1913 Paper: Still Relevant, Still Exciting, Still Puzzling. Phys. Teach. 1 November 2018; 56 (8): 500–502. https://doi.org/10.1119/1.5064553

Download citation file:

• Ris (Zotero)
• Reference Manager

Many teachers like to introduce the Bohr atom toward the end of an introductory physics course. This is an excellent idea, given the historic importance of Bohr’s 1913 work, which provided the bridge from Planck’s quantized interaction of matter and radiation (1900) to the full theory of quantum mechanics (1925-28). Unfortunately, the version of the Bohr atom that appears in many textbooks and is no doubt often presented to students is more wrong than right and may leave both teachers and students wondering why, more than a hundred years later, it is still being taught. This “pedagogic” version postulates that an electron in a stationary state moves in a circular orbit with an angular momentum that is an integral multiple of h /2π ( L = nh /2π = nħ )— ħ for the lowest-energy state, 2 ħ for the next state, and so on. This picture of the hydrogen atom is wrong in two senses. First it doesn’t conform to our present understanding of the hydrogen atom. This, in itself, is not a reason to scrap it, for the historical development of quantum physics is certainly of interest. But second, it doesn’t conform to the essence of what Bohr actually did. That is a reason not to teach about circular orbits and L = nħ .

Citing articles via

• Online ISSN 1943-4928
• Print ISSN 0031-921X
• For Researchers
• For Librarians
• For Advertisers
• Our Publishing Partners  
• Physics Today
• Conference Proceedings
• Special Topics

pubs.aip.org

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Connect with AIP Publishing

This feature is available to subscribers only.

Sign In or Create an Account

Atomic Structure & Basic Concepts of Chemistry

• In book: Atomic Structure & Basic Concepts of Chemistry

• Arba Minch University

Discover the world's research

• 25+ million members
• 160+ million publication pages
• 2.3+ billion citations
• Recruit researchers
• Join for free
• Login Email Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google Welcome back! Please log in. Email · Hint Tip: Most researchers use their institutional email address as their ResearchGate login Password Forgot password? Keep me logged in Log in or Continue with Google No account? Sign up

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

•  We're Hiring!
•  Help Center

Atomic Structure

• Most Cited Papers
• Most Downloaded Papers
• Newest Papers
• Last »
• X-ray production Follow Following
• Nucleic Acid Follow Following
• Theoretical and Space Physics Follow Following
• Space Physics Follow Following
• Organic Compound Follow Following
• Hyperfine Structure Follow Following
• Electromagnetic Field Follow Following
• Theoretical Physics Follow Following
• Amino Acid Profile Follow Following
• Mathematical Sciences Follow Following

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• Academia.edu Journals
•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Published: 11 December 1913

The Structure of the Atom

• E. RUTHERFORD 1  

Nature volume  92 ,  page 423 ( 1913 ) Cite this article

3040 Accesses

16 Citations

Metrics details

IN a letter to this journal last week, Mr. Soddy has discussed the bearing of my theory of the nucleus atom on radio-active phenomena, and seems to be under the impression that I hold the view that the nucleus must consist entirely of positive electricity. As a matter of fact, I have not discussed in any detail the question of the constitution of the nucleus beyond the statement that it must have a resultant positive charge. There appears to me no doubt that the α particle does arise from the nucleus, and I have thought for some time that the evidence points to the conclusion that the particle has a similar origin. This point has been discussed in some detail in a recent paper by Bohr ( Phil. Mag. , September, 1913). The strongest evidence in support of this view is, to my mind, (1) that the β ray, like the α ray, transformations are independent of physical and chemical conditions, and (2) that the energy emitted in the form of β and γ rays by the transformation of an atom of radium C is much greater than could be expected to be stored up in the external electronic system. At the same time, I think it very likely that a considerable fraction of the rays which are expelled from radioactive substances arise from the external electrons. This, however, is probably a secondary effect resulting from the primary expulsion of a β particle from the nucleus.

The original suggestion of van der Broek that the charge on the nucleus is equal to the atomic number and not to half the atomic weight seems to me very promising. This idea has already been used by Bohr in his theory of the constitution of atoms. The strongest and most convincing evidence in support of this hypothesis will be found in a paper by Moseley in The Philosophical Magazine of this month. He there shows that the frequency of the X radiations from a number of elements can be simply explained if the number of unit charges on the nucleus is equal to the atomic number. It would appear that the charge on the nucleus is the fundamental constant which determines the physical and chemical properties of the atom, while the atomic weight, although it approximately follows the order of the nucleus charge, is probably a complicated function of the latter depending on the detailed structure of the nucleus.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Manchester, December 6, 1913. https://www.nature.com/nature

E. RUTHERFORD

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

RUTHERFORD, E. The Structure of the Atom. Nature 92 , 423 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/092423a0

Download citation

Issue Date : 11 December 1913

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/092423a0

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Atomic number and isotopy before nuclear structure: multiple standards and evolving collaboration of chemistry and physics.

• Nicholas W. Best

Foundations of Chemistry (2023)

On books and chemical elements

• Santiago Alvarez
• Joaquim Sales
• Miquel Seco

Foundations of Chemistry (2008)

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines . If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.