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Excited Electron State of a Silicon Nanocrystal
Caption:
A model of the calculated electronic state of the excited electron of a silicon nanocrystal. [See also, Atomic Structure of a Silicon Nanocrystal and Calculated Valence Electron Density of Silicon Nanocrystal.]
This research was funded in part by National Science Foundation grants DMR 01-02668 and DMR 01-21361.
More about this Image
This plot shows where the two most energetic electrons of the silicon nanocrystal "orbit." One might think that electrons orbit the nucleus of an atom like the planets orbit the sun of our solar system, but this is not what happens. The orbits that electrons travel around the nucleus of an atom are quite complicated shapes (not just circles like with our planets), and each orbit can hold no more than 2 electrons. When atoms come together to form a molecule like this silicon nanocrystal, the electrons that previously were orbiting each atom now travel throughout the entire molecular structure getting close to multiple atoms and forming even more complicated shapes. The blue and yellow shapes are like clouds within which an electron could be found. The reason for these complicated orbits is explained in quantum physics and is based on the quantum nature of matter at very small sizes.
(Preview Only)
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| Credit: |
Credit Zack Helms, Quantum Simulations Laboratory, North Carolina State University; simulations completed using computational resources provided by the National Center for Supercomputing Applications. |
| Year of Image: |
2002 |
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Categories:
COMPUTERS / Supercomputing
PHYSICS / Quantum
Formats Available:
Restrictions:
No additional restrictions--beyond NSF's general restrictions--have been placed on this image. For a list of general restrictions that apply to this and all images in the NSF Image Library, see the section "Conditions".
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