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Molecular orbitals come into view Scientists have succeeded in imaging a single-electron wavefunction or "orbital" in a molecule for the first time. David Villeneuve of the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in Ottawa and colleagues used femtosecond lasers to reconstruct the highest occupied molecular orbital in nitrogen molecules (J Itatani et al. 2004 Nature 432 867). These electrons are responsible for the chemical properties of molecules.
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