Quantum Orbitals

Quantum Orbitals shows the electron cloud of a hydrogen atom as thousands of glowing particles. It takes the lobed shapes of the textbook orbitals, but here it moves: two orbitals are mixed, so the cloud slowly breathes and turns while every particle flows along its own path.

How it works

The particles start out spread exactly like the electron's probability cloud and then follow the flow of the wave itself, so they keep the cloud's shape however it changes. Their colour comes from the phase of the wave at each point and cycles between two colours, which makes the bands inside the cloud visible.

Settings

• State A and State B: the two orbitals, from 1s up to the 4f shapes.
• Mix: how much of the second orbital is in the blend.
• Time Scale: how fast the cloud breathes and circulates.
• Cloud Density: the brightness of the background haze.
• Phase Fronts: glowing surfaces inside the cloud where the phase is the same.
• Color and Phase Color: the two ends of the phase cycle.

The cursor can be a photon source that swings the atom back and forth between the two states while it shines, a magnet that makes the whole cloud precess, or a detector that clicks where the electron is found and briefly gathers the cloud into a packet at that spot.

Use it for

Science and education visuals and deep-tech brands. See also Molecules and the other particles.