Atomic Physics

Atomic Physics

-atomic physics – deals mainly with

phenomena involving the electrons in atoms

-nuclear physics – deals with the central

core or nucleus of the atom

-quantum mechanics – describes atoms and

electrons using properties of the wave
 What is Nuclear Physics?
A branch of physics which deals with the
study of the structure, forces and behavior
of the atomic nucleus.
 Why do we need to study the
physics of the nucleus?

For a better understanding of the principles of

radioactivity, a process that originates from
the nucleus
 Review of Atomic Structure
• The universe is composed of matter.
• Matter is anything that occupies space and
has mass and weight.
• All matter is found to consist of simple
substance-element.
• Elements are usually chemically linked to
other to other elements in the form of
compunds.
Atomic Structure
 Atomic Physics

• Atomic Theory of Matter: All matter is made of tiny

particles, too small to be seen

• Idea was first suggested by the Greeks – Leucippus and his

student Democritus – “thought experiment”, an imagined
experiment that seemed possible in principle but difficult to
carry out in practice

• Matter is either continous – divisible without

limits, or discrete – made up of particles
that cannot be divided

• Concluded that matter is made up of small,

“atomic” (Greek for not divisible), particles - atoms
 Atomic Physics – How do we know?

• Greeks had no direct evidence for existence of atoms. Democritus

had some indirect evidence, odor

• First specific evidence was discovered by John Dalton around 1800.

•John Dalton: Chemical combinations of atoms occur in accordance

with fixed ratios.

Consider water (H20): H Hydrogen – atomic weight 1

Oxygen – atomic weight 16

O
Water – H20
ratio of the weights of H : 0 in water is:

O Mass of all H atoms in a sample of water

=
2 =
1
H H
Mass of all O atoms in a sample of water 16 8

DOES THIS PROVE THE EXISTENCE OF ATOMS?

 Atomic Physics – How do we know? more evidence

• Robert Brown – botanist, observed under a microscope that tiny

pollen grains suspended in liquid move around erratically even though
the liquid had no motion

• Brown first hypothesized that the pollen could be alive! lifeless pollen
showed the same behavior

• Atomic theory could explain this motion

• Atoms in constant motion and that the dust

grains were jostled or knocked around by this
motion

• 1905 an unknown physicist named Albert Einstein

was able to calculate the rate at which a collection
of pollen grains would spread out (diffuse)
diagram of erratic
pollen grain path
 Life and Atoms
Every time you breathe you are taking in
atoms. Oxygen atoms to be exact.
These atoms react with the blood and
are carried to every cell in your body
for various reactions you need to
survive. Likewise, every time you
breathe out carbon dioxide atoms are
released.

The cycle here is interesting.

TAKING SOMETHING IN.

ALLOWING SOMETHING OUT!
 The Atom
As you probably already know an atom
is the building block of all matter. It
has a nucleus with protons and
neutrons and an electron cloud
outside of the nucleus where
electrons are orbiting and MOVING.

Depending on the ELEMENT, the

amount of electrons differs as well
as the amounts of orbits surrounding
the atom.
 Early Ideas about the Atom

The term atom came from the Greek word

atomos which means indivisible. The Greek
scientist, particularly Democritus and
Leucippus, were the first to propose that
matter is made up of atoms. Decmocritus
coined the term atom. Athough he did not
know what atoms were or how they looked.
John Dalton (1766-1844) proposed the Atomic
Theory of Matter with the following points:
1. Matter is made up of extremely small
indivisible particles called atoms.
2. All atoms of a certain element are identical.
Atoms of one element are different from the
atoms of another element.
3. The joining of two or more elements form a
compound.
4. Chemical reactions only rearrage not destroy
or change the atoms involved.
 Early Models Of The Atom
• The Greek idea basis of Dalton Model
– Tiny, hard, indestructible sphere
 Models of the Atom
• Thomson Model /
“Plum Pudding”
Model
– Discovery of electron
in 1897
– Negative electrons in
sphere of positive
charge
– A volume of positive
charge is embedded
with negative charges
called “electrons”
The Rutherford Model:
The Atom’s Massive Center
– Brought about by the gold foil experiment.
– A positive nucleus orbited by electrons.
– The nucleus contains 99.9% of the atom’s
mass.
 Models of the Atom
• Neils Model / Planetary
Model
– 1911 experiment by
Geiger & Marsden
demonstrated that
practically all of atom’s
mass and all positive
charge must be centrally
located in atom (nucleus)
– Electrons orbit nucleus
like planets around Sun
 Quantum Mechanical Model
• Electrons are not confined to particular orbital
distances as assumed in Bohr model
• Electron cloud: a probability cloud
– Density at each location related to probability of
finding electron at that location
– Wave function predicts geometry for energy levels
(some spherical, others more complex)
– Most probable location still corresponds to Bohr radii,
but impossible to determine actual location
• Mathematical picture of the atom that explains
certain aspects of atomic structure that Bohr
model cannot explain
Electron Cloud Model
The quantum mechanical
model of the atom still
has the nucleus at the
center. Around it is the
electron cloud with
electrons to make the
atom neutral. The
electrons are still located
in energy levels nut
instead of being fixed
paths, the energy levels
are now the regions that
make up the electron
cloud.
Atomic Physics – How do we know? more evidence

• Today we have the strongest evidence, thanks to the strongest

microscope in the world called the Scanning Tunneling Microscope
(STM) – uses quantum mechanical tunneling to achieve high resolution
images

z
Tip

y x
Piezo
300 Å
Tip
s

DOS = density of states

 Elements
The number of protons (Z) in an atom dictate
the element.

For uncharged atom, the number of electrons

equal the number of protons.
Isotopes
Atoms of an
element that
have a
different
number of
neutrons in
nucleus are
called
isotopes of
each other.
 Notation
X=element symbol
A=Atomic mass (neutron + proton)

A X
Z=atomic number (proton)
N=number of neutron

Z N
 Notation
A, mass number
A = p +n
A= Z+N Symbol of element

A X 14 C
Z N 6 8
Z, atomic number N, number of neutron
Z=p N=n
 Nuclear Terms
Nucleons : pertains to both protons and neutrons
Nuclides : any atomic species characterized by the Z
and N
Isotopes : nuclides w/ the same Z but different N
e.g 6329Cu34 and 6529Cu36
Isobars : nuclides with the same A
e.g 3114Si17 , 3115P16 , 3116S15
Isotones : nuclides with the same N but different Z
e.g 2612Mg14 , 2713Al14 , 2814Si14
 Quantum Mechanical Model of
the Atom
Quantum Physics is a branch of science that
deals with discrete, indivisible units of
energy called “quanta” as described by the
quantum theory.

Wave-Particle Dualism
Schrodinger Wave Equation
Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle
Quantum Numbers
Pauli’s Exclusion Principle
 Wave Particle Duality
Light has a dual nature….
….sometimes it behaves like a particle
….sometimes it behaves like a wave

How about matter?

 Thomas Young’s famous experiment
(1801) in which light passes through two
closely spaced slits and produced a pattern of
bright and dark fringes on a screen, fringes
pattern is a direct indication that interference
is occurring between the light waves coming
from each slit.
The experiment demonstrated the wave
nature of light by showing that two
overlapping light waves interfered with each
other.
Thomas Young
June 13, 1773, England
May 10, 1829
The ability to exhibit interference effects in an
essential characteristic of waves. One of the
most incredible discoveries of the 20th century
physics is that particles can also behave like a
wave and exhibit interference effects.
Particle impacts make visible the interference pattern of waves

A quantum particle is represented by a wave packet.

Interference of a quantum particle with itself.

The De Broglie Wavelength and
the Wave Nature of Matter
De Broglie made the explicit proposal that the
wavelength of a particle is given by the
same relation that applies to a photon:
db = h/p

Where h is Planck’s constant and p is the

magnitude of the relativistic momentum of
particle. Today db is known as the de
Broglie wavelength.
As a graduate student in 1923, Louis de
Broglie made the astounding suggestion that
since light waves could exhibit particle like
behavior, particles should exhibit wave like
behavior. De Broglie proposed that all
moving matter has a wavelength associated
with it, just as a wave does.
 Particle
1. E = KE+PE
2. P = mv
3. De Broglie
Wavelegth
Concept  = h/p

1. Energy, E
2. Momentum , p
3. Wavelength Photon
1. E = hf
2. P = h/ 
3.  = c/f = h/p
Problem Set:
1. Calculate the de Broglie wavelength for a baseball (145
g) that is travelling at 3250 mph?
2. Determine the de Broglie wavelength for an electron
moving at a speed of 6.0 x 106 m/s.
3. What is the velocity of an electron that has a de Broglie
wavelength approximately the length of a chemical
bond? Assume the length to be 1.2 x 10 -10 m.
4. What is the de Broglie wavelength of a wave associated
with an electron that has been accelerated from rest
through a potential energy of 50 eV.
5. Find the speed and KE of a neutron that has a de Broglie
wavelength 0.200 nm, approximately the atomic spacing
in many crystals.
6. Calculate the de Broglie for an electron that is travelling
at 4766 ft/s?
1. The interatomic spacing in a crystal of table salt is 0.282nm.
This crystal is being studied in a neutron diffraction
experiment, similar to the one that is produced the photograph.
How fast must a neutron (mass = 1.67 x 10 -27 kg ) be moving to
have a de Broglie wavelength of ).282 nm?
2. A bacterium ( mass = 2 x 10 -15 kg )in the blood is moving at
0.33 m/s. What is the de Broglie wavelength of the bacterium?
3. A photon has the same momentum as an electron moving
with a speed of 2.0 x 10 5 m/s. What is the wavelength of the
photon?
4. A particle has a speed of 1.2 x 10 6 m/s. Its de Broglie
wavelength is 8.4 x 10 -14 m. What is the mass of the particle?
5. The de Broglie wavelength of a proton in a particle accelerator
is 1.3 x 10 -14 m. Determine the kinetic energy ( in Joules ) of
the proton.
 Schrodinger’s Atom
• using de Broglie’s idea that particles can be
treated like waves, developed wave
mechanics in 1926.
• Schrodinger’s equation does not tell us the
exact location of the electron, rather it
describes the probability that an electron
will be at a certain location in the atom.
 Radioactivity
Radioactivity was discovered at the end of the
19th century. The next decades saw an
increasing understanding of radioactivity as
just one of several nuclear processes, along
with fission and fusion.
 Radioactivity
Elements with a large number of protons or protons
and neutrons combined, naturally have unstable
nuclei. The large number of sub-nuclear particles
causes an imbalance between attractive forces and
repulsive electrical forces. Another factor affecting
nuclear instability is the ratio of neutrons to
protons, which can disrupt forces in the nucleus
even if the total number of such particles is not too
large. The result process is called radioactivity.
In 1896, Henri Bequerel discovered a
phenomena that atoms disintegrate by
themselves while investigating the properties
of flourescent minerals. Flourescent minerals
glow in the dark after they have been
exposed to intense light. One of the minerals
that Bequerel worked with was a uranium
mineral.
 Quantum Numbers
it describes the electronic structure of an atom
• principal quantum number –determines energy
of electron (n), (shell number).
• orbital quantum number – gives shape of
electron orbital, (l) (spdf)
• magnetic quantum number – defines orientation
in a magnetic field (m)
• spin quantum number – related to axial spinning
of the electron, (s)
 Pauli’s Exclusion Principle
(1925)
• no two electrons in the same atom can have
the same values of the 4 quantum numbers.
• each electron has a unique set of quantum
numbers.
Henry Bequerel
• Atomic number greater than 83 are unstable
and therefore undergo radioactive decay by
doing so they become more stable.
• Smaller elements may also be unstable
because of their neutron to proton ratio.
• Elements that emit such radiation are said to
be radioactive or possessing the property of
radioactivity. Radioactivity is the
spontaneous breakdown of an unstable
atomic nucleus accompanied by the
emission of particles and rays.
• The end product is a more stable atomic
nucleus usually of another element. It is
called the decay or daughter element.
 Nuclear Physics - Radioactivity
Before we begin to discuss the specifics of radioactive decay
we need to be certain you understand the proper
NOTATION that is used.
To the left is your typical radioactive
isotope.
Top number = mass number = #protons
+ neutrons. It is represented by the
letter "A“

Bottom number = atomic number = #

of protons in the nucleus. It is
represented by the letter "Z"
 Nuclear Physics – Notation & Isotopes
An isotope is when you have the
SAME ELEMENT, yet it
has a different MASS. This
is a result of have extra
neutrons. Since Carbon is
always going to be element
#6, we can write Carbon in
terms of its mass instead.

Carbon - 12
Carbon - 14
 Radioactivity
When an unstable nucleus releases energy and/or particles.
 Radioactive Decay4
There are 4 basic types of
2 He
radioactive decay
0
• Alpha – Ejected Helium 1 e
• Beta – Ejected Electron 0
• Positron – Ejected Anti-Beta 1 e

particle 0
• Gamma – Ejected Energy 0
1
1 p
You may encounter protons and
1
neutrons being emitted as well 0 n
 Alpha Decay

240
94 Pu U  He
236
92
4
2
Alpha Particles
• These are composed of two protons and two
neutrons, hence they are helium nuclei.
Alpha particles have two positive electrical
charges, travels about 1/10 the speed of
light.
 Alpha Decay Applications
241
95 Am He  ?4
2
A
Z

Americium-241, an alpha-emitter, is used in smoke detectors. The alpha

particles ionize air between a small gap. A small current is passed through
that ionized air. Smoke particles from fire that enter the air gap reduce the
current flow, sounding the alarm.
 Beta Decay
There aren’t really any
applications of beta decay
other than Betavoltaics which
makes batteries from beta
emitters. Beta decay, did
however, lead us to discover
the neutrino.

228
88 Ra  e Ac
0
1
228
89
Beta Particles
• Beta particles are electrons which have
single negative charges and travel at nearly
the speed of light. Their mass is only a
small fraction of the mass of alpha particles.
The high speed of beta particles makes them
much more penetrating than alpha particles.
It was beta particles from the uranium
compound that fogged Becquerel’s
photographic plates.
 Beta Plus Decay - Positron
Isotopes which undergo this
decay and thereby emit
positrons include carbon-11,
potassium-40, nitrogen-13,
oxygen-15, fluorine-18, and
iodine-121.

230
91 Pa e Th
0
1
230
90
 Beta Plus Decay Application -
Positron emission tomography
(PET) Positron emission tomography
(PET) is a nuclear medicine
imaging technique which produces
a three-dimensional image or
picture of functional processes in
the body. The system detects pairs
of gamma rays emitted indirectly
by a positron-emitting
radionuclide (tracer), which is
introduced into the body on a
biologically active molecule.
Images of tracer concentration in
3-dimensional space within the
body are then reconstructed by
computer analysis.
Gamma Decay

240
94 Pu Pu  
240
94
0
0
Gamma Rays
• These are high energy EM waves. They are
the same kind of radiation as visible light,
but much shorter wavelength, and thus
higher frequency. Gamma rays are
produced by energy transitions in the
nucleus, but do not change the composition
of the nuclear particles. They are the most
penetrating of the radiation given off by
radioactive elements.
 Gamma Decay Applications
Gamma rays are the most dangerous type of radiation as
they are very penetrating. They can be used to kill living
organisms and sterilize medical equipment before use.
They can be used in CT Scans and radiation therapy.

Gamma Rays are used to view stowaways inside of a truck. This

technology is used by the Department of Homeland Security at many
ports of entry to the US.
 Significant Nuclear Reactions -
Fusion

2
1 H  H  He  n
3
1
4
2
1
0
nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple like-charged atomic
nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus. It is accompanied by the
release or absorption of energy.
 Fusion Applications - IFE
In an IFE (Inertial Fusion Energy) power plant, many (typically 5-10)
pulses of fusion energy per second would heat a low-activation
coolant, such as lithium-bearing liquid metals or molten salts,
surrounding the fusion targets. The coolant in turn would transfer the
fusion heat to a power conversion system to produce electricity.
 Significant Nuclear Reactions -
Fission

0n U  Ba  Kr 3 n  energy
1 235
92
141
56
92
36
1
0
Nuclear fission differs from other forms of radioactive decay in that it
can be harnessed and controlled via a chain reaction: free neutrons
released by each fission event can trigger yet more events, which in turn
release more neutrons and cause more fissions. The most common
nuclear fuels are 235U (the isotope of uranium with an atomic mass of
235 and of use in nuclear reactors) and 239Pu (the isotope of plutonium
with an atomic mass of 239). These fuels break apart into a bimodal
range of chemical elements with atomic masses centering near 95 and
135 u (fission products).
 Fission Bomb
One class of nuclear weapon, a fission
bomb (not to be confused with the
fusion bomb), otherwise known as an
atomic bomb or atom bomb, is a fission
reactor designed to liberate as much
energy as possible as rapidly as
possible, before the released energy
causes the reactor to explode (and the
chain reaction to stop).
A nuclear reactor is a device in
which nuclear chain fission
reactions are initiated, controlled,
and sustained at a steady rate, as
opposed to a nuclear bomb, in
which the chain reaction occurs in
a fraction of a second and is
uncontrolled causing an explosion.
1. Write the equation for the nuclear reaction described in
each of the following processes:
a. Americium-241 ( 241Am) undergoes alpha decay (inside a
smoke detector)
b. Iodine-131 (131I) undergoes normal beta decay (used in
therapy for hyperthyroidism)
c. Fluorine-18 (18F) undergoes positron emission (one of the
radionuclides used in PET scans)
d. Technetium-99m (99mTc) undergoes gamma decay to form
99Tc (a diagnostic radioactive tracer used to locate tumors,
the “m” indicates a metastable excited nuclear state)
e. What isotope decay into Pb-210 when it undergoes beta
decay?
2. Sulfur-35 (35S) is a naturally occurring
radioactive isotope of sulfur that is
produced in the upper atmosphere. What
type of radioactive decay would you expect
for this isotope, and why?
3. What type of radioactive decay would you
expect for 238U, and why?