This java applet displays the molecular wave functions (molecular orbitals) of the hydrogen molecular ion (H2+) in 3-D. Select the wavefunction using the popup menu at the upper right. Click and drag the mouse to rotate the view.
At the top of the screen, you will see the potential for the lower states (shown vertically) graphed for different values of the atomic separation (shown horizontally). The vertical yellow line indicates the current separation.
Below that, you will see the σg1s orbital. The display is brighter where the wave function's probability density is larger; the color indicates its phase. Rotate the view by clicking on the wave function and dragging.
The yellow circles indicate the positions of the two hydrogen nuclei. The red indicates the wave function of the single electron surrounding them both.
The Slice popup allows you to look at planar slices of the molecule rather than looking at the entire thing in 3-d. If the popup is set to No Slicing, you view the entire wave function. Otherwise you will see a box sliced in one of three directions. The location of the slice can be adjusted by dragging the line running along the sides of box near the slice.
The Brightness slider controls the brightness, just like on a TV set. This can be used to view faint areas more easily.
The Image Resolution slider controls the resolution of the box image. Higher resolution images are slower.
The Scale slider controls the zoom factor.
The Separation slider controls the separation between the two hydrogen nuclei. At the lowest setting the two nuclei fuse together, forming a helium atom.
The View Menu has the following items:
The Options Menu has the following items:
The orbitals and energies shown are approximations calculated variationally. At times, when rotating the orbital, small features may unexpectedly disappear and reappear; this is a bug in the rendering. If this is a problem, use the slice menu to get a more accurate (and faster) view.
