In the following Figure - 9.4, we plot the radial functions , the reduced radial functions , and the radial probability densities for different states of hydrogen atom. We will also see the plot for different orbitals of hydrogen atom.
The first orbit n = 1, l = 0 and = 0, the K shell
- In this plot we can see the effect of the factor r in
. Here, goes to 2 (Bohr radius) at r = 0, while goes to zero. The factor of r in also introduces a peak at 1 .
- There is no node for 1s state.
- The probability density
goes to zero at r = 0, it means that the probability of finding the electron at the nucleus is zero. shows also a peak at 1 which is the same as Bohr radius and the peak value is 0.54.
- Conceptually, peaks in
are radii near which an electron in a state is most likely to be found.
- Because of the gradual decay of
on the large-r side of this peak, the calculated mean radial position turns out to be larger than the location of the peak.
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