Atomic Physics
Structure and behavior of individual atoms
Physics: Electron
Electron The electron (e−, or β− in nuclear reactions) is a subatomic particle whose electric charge is negative one elementary charge....
Physics: Atom
Atom Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements and the fundamental building blocks of matter....
Physics: Molecule
Molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this c...
Physics: Henry Cavendish
Henry Cavendish (1731) Henry Cavendish ( KAV-ən-dish; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist....
Physics: Orbit
Orbit In celestial mechanics, an orbit is the curved trajectory of an object under the influence of an attracting force....
Physics: Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion Nuclear fusion is a reaction in which two or more atomic nuclei combine to form a larger nucleus....
Physics: John Dalton
John Dalton (1766) John Dalton (; 5 or 6 September 1766 – 27 July 1844) was an English chemist, physicist, and meteorologist whose work laid the foundations of modern atomic theory and stoichiometri...
Physics: Quantum tunnelling
Quantum tunnelling In physics, quantum tunnelling, barrier penetration, or simply tunnelling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an object such as an electron or atom passes through a potenti...
Physics: 1914 Nobel Prize in Physics
1914 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Max von Laue His discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals....
Physics: Universe
Universe The universe comprises all of existence: all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from sub-atomic particles to entire galactic filaments....
Physics: Geiger–Marsden experiments
Geiger–Marsden experiments By: Rutherford (1909) The Rutherford scattering experiments were a landmark series of experiments by which scientists learned that every atom has a nucleus where all of it...
Physics: 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics
1915 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Sir William Henry Bragg, William Lawrence Bragg Their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays....
Physics: Oil drop experiment
Oil drop experiment By: Robert Millikan (1909) The oil drop experiment was performed by Robert A....
Physics: Franck–Hertz experiment
Franck–Hertz experiment By: Franck and Hertz (1914) The Franck–Hertz experiment was the first electrical measurement to clearly show the quantum nature of atoms....
Physics: Ernest Rutherford
Ernest Rutherford (1871) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (30 August 1871 – 19 October 1937), was a New Zealand physicist and chemist who was a pioneering researcher in both atomic a...
Physics: Arnold Sommerfeld
Arnold Sommerfeld (1868) Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (German: [ˈaʁnɔlt ˈzɔmɐˌfɛlt]; 5 December 1868 – 26 April 1951) was a German theoretical physicist who pioneered developments in both atomi...
Physics: Stern–Gerlach experiment
Stern–Gerlach experiment By: Stern and Gerlach (1922) In quantum physics, the Stern–Gerlach experiment demonstrated that the spatial orientation of angular momentum is quantized....
Physics: Niels Bohr
Niels Bohr (1885) Niels Henrik David Bohr (; Danish: [ˈne̝ls ˈpoɐ̯ˀ]; 7 October 1885 – 18 November 1962) was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic...
Physics: Davisson–Germer experiment
Davisson–Germer experiment By: Davisson and Germer (1927) The Davisson–Germer experiment was conducted from 1923 to 1927 by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer at Western Electric (later Bell Labs)....
Physics: 1919 Nobel Prize in Physics
1919 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Johannes Stark His discovery of the Doppler effect in canal rays and the splitting of spectral lines in electric fields....
Physics: Electric current
Electric current An electric current is a flow of charged particles, such as electrons or ions, moving through an electrical conductor or space....
Physics: Capacitor
Capacitor A capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other....
Physics: Transistor
Transistor A transistor is a semiconductor device used to amplify or switch electrical signals and power....
Physics: Integrated circuit
Integrated circuit An integrated circuit (IC), also known as a microchip or simply chip, is a compact assembly of electronic circuits formed from various electronic components, such as transistors, r...
Physics: 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics
1922 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Niels Henrik David Bohr His services in the investigation of the structure of atoms and of the radiation emanating from them....
Physics: Pair production
Pair production Pair production is the creation of a subatomic particle and its antiparticle from a neutral boson....
Physics: Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment
Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment By: Cowan and Reines (1956) The Cowan–Reines neutrino experiment was conducted by physicists Clyde Cowan and Frederick Reines in 1956....
Physics: 1924 Nobel Prize in Physics
1924 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn His discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy....
Physics: Peter Higgs
Peter Higgs (1929) Peter Ware Higgs (29 May 1929 – 8 April 2024) was a British theoretical physicist, professor at the University of Edinburgh, and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the mass ...
Physics: 1925 Nobel Prize in Physics
1925 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: James Franck, Gustav Ludwig Hertz Their discovery of the laws governing the impact of an electron upon an atom....
Physics: Rutherford scattering experiments
Rutherford scattering experiments By: Ernest Rutherford (1911) The Rutherford scattering experiments were a landmark series of experiments by which scientists learned that every atom has a nucleus w...
Physics: 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics
1929 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Prince Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond de Broglie His discovery of the wave nature of electrons....
Physics: 1932 Nobel Prize in Physics
1932 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Werner Karl Heisenberg The creation of quantum mechanics, the application of which has, inter alia, led to the discovery of the allotropic forms of hydrogen....
Physics: Jack Steinberger
Jack Steinberger (1921) Jack Steinberger (born Hans Jakob Steinberger; May 25, 1921 – December 12, 2020) was a German-born American physicist noted for his work with neutrinos, the subatomic particle...
Physics: 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics
1933 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Erwin Schrödinger, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac The discovery of new productive forms of atomic theory....
Physics: 1937 Nobel Prize in Physics
1937 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Clinton Joseph Davisson, George Paget Thomson Their experimental discovery of the diffraction of electrons by crystals....
Physics: 1944 Nobel Prize in Physics
1944 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Isidor Isaac Rabi His resonance method for recording the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei....
Physics: Anne L'Huillier
Anne L'Huillier (1958) Anne Geneviève L'Huillier (French: [an lɥije]; born 16 August 1958) is a French physicist....
Physics: Rutherford model
Rutherford model The Rutherford model is a name for the concept that an atom contains a compact nucleus....
Physics: Bohr model
Bohr model In atomic physics, the Bohr model or Rutherford–Bohr model is an obsolete model of the atom that incorporated some early quantum concepts....
Physics: 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics
1951 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Sir John Douglas Cockcroft, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton Their pioneer work on the transmutation of atomic nuclei by artificially accelerated atomic particles....
Physics: 1955 Nobel Prize in Physics
1955 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Willis Eugene Lamb, Polykarp Kusch His discoveries concerning the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum / for his precision determination of the magnetic mo...
Physics: 1963 Nobel Prize in Physics
1963 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Eugene Paul Wigner, Maria Goeppert Mayer, J. Hans D. Jensen His contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly t...
Physics: 1964 Nobel Prize in Physics
1964 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Charles Hard Townes, Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov, Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov Fundamental work in the field of quantum electronics, which has led to the ...
Physics: 1966 Nobel Prize in Physics
1966 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Alfred Kastler The discovery and development of optical methods for studying Hertzian resonances in atoms....
Physics: 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics
1968 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Luis Walter Alvarez His decisive contributions to elementary particle physics, in particular the discovery of a large number of resonance states, made possibl...
Physics: 1975 Nobel Prize in Physics
1975 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Aage Niels Bohr, Ben Roy Mottelson, Leo James Rainwater The discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the...
Physics: 1977 Nobel Prize in Physics
1977 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Philip Warren Anderson, Sir Nevill Francis Mott, John Hasbrouck Van Vleck Their fundamental theoretical investigations of the electronic structure of magnetic...
Physics: 1981 Nobel Prize in Physics
1981 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Nicolaas Bloembergen, Arthur Leonard Schawlow, Kai M. Siegbahn Their contribution to the development of laser spectroscopy / for his contribution to the devel...
Physics: 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics
1986 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Ernst Ruska, Gerd Binnig, Heinrich Rohrer His fundamental work in electron optics, and for the design of the first electron microscope / for their design of t...
Physics: 1989 Nobel Prize in Physics
1989 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Norman F. Ramsey, Hans G. Dehmelt, Wolfgang Paul The invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic c...
Physics: 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics
1990 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Jerome I. Friedman, Henry W. Kendall, Richard E. Taylor Their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound...
Physics: 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics
1997 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Steven Chu, Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, William D. Phillips Development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light....
Physics: 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics
2000 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Zhores I. Alferov, Herbert Kroemer, Jack S. Kilby Developing semiconductor heterostructures used in high-speed- and opto-electronics / for his part in the inv...
Physics: 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics
2001 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Eric A. Cornell, Wolfgang Ketterle, Carl E. Wieman The achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental st...
Physics: 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics
2008 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Yoichiro Nambu, Makoto Kobayashi, Toshihide Maskawa The discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics / for the discovery of ...
Physics: 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics
2013 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: François Englert, Peter W. Higgs The theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles, ...
Physics: 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics
2021 Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded to: Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann, Giorgio Parisi The physical modelling of Earth’s climate, quantifying variability and reliably predicting global warming / f...