Pictures of Atomic Orbitals

Here are some renderings of the real ('Cartesian') representations of the atomic orbitals of a one electron atom. The surfaces represent a contour of equal probability amplitude. The different colors of the lobes represent different phases (signs) of the wavefunctions in those regions.

The 'natural'' solution to the angular part of the Schroedinger Eqn for the one electron atom is complex for non-zero angular momentum projection on the space-fixed axis. The natural functions for the description of a system with spherical symmetry are the Spherical Harmonics

Enjoy! [I didn't label the x, y, and z coordinates, can you?]

The 1s orbital
The 2s orbital
The 3s orbital
The 4s orbital

The 2px orbital
The 2py orbital
The 2pz orbital

The 3px orbital
The 3py orbital
The 3pz orbital

The 4px orbital
The 4py orbital
The 4pz orbital

The 3dz2 orbital
The 3dyz orbital
The 3dxz orbital
The 3dxy orbital
The 3dx2-y2 orbital

 The 4dz2 orbital
The 4dyz orbital
The 4dxy orbital
 The 4dxz orbital
The 4dx2-y2 orbital

The 4fz3 orbital
 The 4fxz2 orbital
The 4fyz2 orbital
The 4fxyz orbital
The 4fz(x2-y2) orbital
 The 4fx(x2-3y2) orbital
The 4fy(3x2-y2) orbital


These renderings have been provided by Dr. Yue-Ling Wong (without her knowledge, actually)

P. J. Brucat || University of Florida || Chemistry Dept