How one can see an electron?

It is difficult to see something with dimensions 2.82×10-15 m or less*. But sometimes one can succeed  – observing not exactly an electron but its path – an orbital.

What was untill recently only a mathematic formula, a probability plot or just an artistic “shadowing”.

Now with the help of precisely planned experiments on X-ray scattering takes a shape of the real d-orbital - a coloured bagel with "ears".orbitals

Moreover, ultrafast lasers (there are several in Milano) allow to trace the electron motion after being ejected from an atom in an ultra short time (10-18 s).krypton-ion

The theory shows, that such electrons, for example coming from ionization process - ejected from a hydrogen atom during collisions or detached from HCl- anion HCl - behave similar to waves on the water surface, when a drop falls on it kropla .
* the so-called classical electron radius, determined with assumption that all the mass of electron comes  from its electrostatic energy (and with using Einstein’s formula E=mc2)

© GK