ANGULAR MOMENTUM

By Ms. Andongolile T
Physics and Mathematics department
Updates to the Bohr Model:

• Electrons are in a 3-D region around the

nucleus called atomic orbitals.
• The atomic orbital describes the probable
location of the electron
• Different kinds of atomic orbitals differ in
the amount of energy and shapes (where
the electron probably is).
• The atomic orbitals get filled by electrons in
a certain order.
A bit of quantum mechanical model

• The quantum mechanical model describes

the probable location of electrons in
atoms by describing:
➢ Principal energy level
➢ Energy sublevel
➢ Orbital (in each sublevel)
➢ Spin
 Principal Energy Level (n)-"shells"
• Indicates the relative size and energy of
atomic orbitals.
• n=integers: n= 1, 2, 3, etc.
• As n increases:
➢ orbital becomes larger
➢ electron spends more time
farther away from the nucleus
➢ atom's energy level increases
Note:
• Only seven energy levels are needed to
contain all the electrons in an atom of any
of those elements now known.
• The lower the number of the principal
energy level, the closer the negatively
charged electron in it is to the positively
charged nucleus
• and the more difficult it is to remove this
electron from the atom.
Angular momentum (or Azimuthal)
quantum number, l
Principal energy levels are broken down into sublevels.
• Sublevels define the orbital shape(3-D shape) (s, p, d, f)
❖ n=1, 1 sublevel (s)
❖ n=2, 2 sublevels (s, p)
❖ n=3, 3 sublevels (s, p, d)
❖ n=4, 4 sublevels (s, p, d, f)

• all the known atoms can have their electrons described

without ever using the g sub-level(n=5).
• We often say there are only four sub-energy levels,
although theoretically there can be more than four
sub-levels.
• The orbital names s, p, d, and f stand for
names given to groups of lines originally noted
in the spectra of the alkali metals.
• The line groups are
called sharp, principal, diffuse,
and fundamental.

• The principal energy levels and sub-levels are

shown in the following diagram.
Orbitals (in each sublevel)
• Each sublevel has a different number of
orbitals.
• s: 1 orbital
• p: 3 orbitals
• d: 5 orbitals
• f: 7 orbitals
Summary

• In each principal energy level, there are n2 orbitals.

• In each principal energy level, there are a maximum
of 2n2 electrons.
 Magnetic quantum number, ml
• Defines the spatial orientation of the orbital
relative to the x, y, and z axes
• Can have values from – l → l

• Within a subshell (same l value), orbitals are

degenerate – have the same energy
Permissible value of quantum number for atomic orbitals
 Spin
• Electrons act like they are spinning on an axis
• While spinning they generate a magnetic field.

• No two electrons in the same orbital can have

the same spin
• The theory of electron spin states that the two
electrons in a single orbital spin in opposite
directions on their axes, causing an energy
difference between them
 Electron Configuration
Describes the electron’s arrangement in atoms.
3 rules for electron configuration at ground
state:
1.Aufbau principle: Each electron occupies the
lowest energy orbital available.
2.Pauli exclusion principle: A maximum of 2
electrons may occupy a single atomic orbital, but only
if they have opposite spins.
3.Hund's rule: a single electron with the same spin
must occupy each orbital in a sublevel before they pair
up with an electron with an opposite spin.
Energy levels of electrons about a nuclei
How electrons occupy atomic orbital
 The energy of an electron versus its orbital
• Within a given principal energy level, electrons’
energy varies in order,

• The energy associated with an orbital

increases as the number of the principal
energy level of the orbital increases
HW; Quantum Mechanical Model of the Atom Practice
i. How many electrons are in a hydrogen atom?
ii. If the electron of hydrogen is in its ground state,
which orbital is it in?
iii. How many orbitals are possible at the 3rd energy
level (n=3)?
iv. Draw the shape of an s and a p orbital.
v. What is the difference between the 2s and 1s
orbital? How are they similar?
vi. How many orbitals and electrons are possible at
n=3?
vii. Write the electron configuration notation for
Aluminum
viii. How many sub-levels may be present in
principal energy level 3 (n = 3)
ix. Describe the difference in the definitions
of a Bohr orbital and a quantum mechanics
orbital.
x. what is the maximum total number of
electrons that can be present in an atom
having three principal energy levels?
Physical Significance of the Quantum Numbers
• Each of the three quantum numbers of the hydrogen
atom (n, l, m) is associated with a different physical
quantity.
• The principal quantum number n is associated with the
total energy of the electron, En.

or
• The angular momentum quantum number l is
associated with the orbital angular momentum of the
electron in a hydrogen atom.
• From Quantum theory, when the hydrogen atom is in
the state ψnlm, the magnitude of its orbital angular
momentum is

Where l = 0, 1, 2, …, (n−1).
• The angular momentum projection quantum
number (ml) is associated with the azimuthal
angle ϕ (Figure below)
• And is related to the z-component of the orbital
angular momentum of an electron in a hydrogen
atom.
• This component is given by
Lz =mħ
Where m =
−l, −l+1, …, 0, …, +l−1, l.
• The z-component of angular momentum is related to
the magnitude of angular momentum by
LZ=L cos𝜽
The quantization of Lz is equivalent
to the quantization of θ
But
and Lz =mħ
Therefore;
 Orbital Magnetic Dipole Moment
of the Electron
• In Bohr’s model of the hydrogen atom, the electron
moves in a circular orbit around the proton.
• Which is equivalent to a circular current flowing
through a circular wire (I=Q/t)

(b)Hydro
gen atom
• In magnetism, a current-carrying wire produces
magnetic fields.
• Therefore, the hydrogen atom produces a magnetic
field and interacts with other magnetic fields.

The orbital magnetic dipole(µ) moment

❖Is a measure of the strength of the magnetic
field produced by the orbital angular
momentum of an electron.
❖From Force and Torque on a Current Loop,
❖The magnitude of the orbital magnetic dipole
moment for a current loop is
µ=I.A. (A=area of the loop)
❖The current I associated with an electron in
orbit about a proton in a hydrogen atom is

❖Where e = magnitude of the electron charge

and T =orbital period.
• If we assume that the electron travels in a
perfectly circular orbit, the orbital period is
r =radius of the orbit
v= speed of e in its orbit
Given an area of a circle =𝜋𝑟2

• μ in terms of the orbital angular momentum

(L⃗ =r⃗ ×p⃗ )
• The electron orbits in a circle, the position vector r⃗,
and the momentum vector p⃗ forms a right angle.

Combining these two equations, we have

In full vector form, this expression is written as

The negative sign appears because the electron has a

negative charge.
In terms of orbital angular momentum

The direction of µ of the electron is antiparallel to the

L,

μB=is a fundamental unit of magnetism called the

Bohr magneton. 9.3×10−24joule/tesla or
5.8×10−5eV/T
❖Also
𝑒𝑣𝑟
𝜇𝑙 2 𝑒
𝐿 = 𝑚𝑣𝑟= 2𝑚𝑒
This is usually written as

Where gl= Lande g factor/orbital g factor=1

 Example
1. What is the magnitude of the orbital dipole
magnetic moment μ of an electron in the hydrogen
atom in the (a) s state, (b) p state, and (c) d state?
(Assume that the spin of the electron is zero.)
 When B ext is applied
• A hydrogen atom has a magnetic field,
• This field interacts with an external magnetic field—
such as the push and pull between two bar magnets.
• When a current loop interacts with an external
magnetic field B⃗ it experiences a torque given by
𝜏⃗ =I(A⃗ ×B⃗ )=μ⃗ ×B⃗ ,
• This torque acts to rotate the magnetic moment
vector of the hydrogen atom to align with the
external magnetic field.
❖The potential energy of the hydrogen atom
associated with this magnetic interaction is given
by

❖If the µ is antiparallel to the external B, the

potential energy is large.
❖if the µ is parallel to the field, the potential
energy is small.
❖Work done on the hydrogen atom to rotate the
atom’s magnetic moment vector in the direction of
the external magnetic field is associated with a
drop in potential energy.
• The energy of the system is conserved because a drop in
potential energy produces radiation (the emission of a
photon
• If B ext points in the positive z-direction, then U

where
m =−l, −l+1,..., 0,..., l−1, l.
µB=Bohr Magneton
E.g., in the l=1 electron state, E total of the electron is
split into three distinct energy levels corresponding to
U=−μB,0,μB
• The splitting of energy levels by an external
magnetic field is called the Zeeman effect.

• Ignoring electron spin effects, transitions from the

l=1 state to a common lower energy state produce
three closely spaced spectral lines (Figure above,
left column).

• Likewise, transitions from the l=2 state produce five

closely spaced spectral lines (right column).

• The separation of these lines is proportional to the

strength of the external magnetic field.
• Only allowed transition ∆𝑚𝑙 = 0, ±1
This effect has many applications.
• For example, the splitting of lines in the
hydrogen spectrum of the Sun is used to
determine the strength of the Sun’s magnetic
field.

• Many such magnetic field measurements can

be used to map the magnetic activity at the
Sun’s surface called a magnetogram (Figure
8.12).
The bright and dark spots show
significant magnetic activity at
the surface of the Sun
• The various line splitting's resulting from magnetic
interactions are collectively called fine structure.
• There are also additional, much smaller splits
associated with the fact that the nucleus of the atom
has a magnetic dipole moment that interacts with the
orbital and/or spin magnetic dipole moments of the
electrons.

• These effects are called hyperfine structure.

• For example, the ground level of hydrogen is split into
two states, separated by only
• Radio astronomers use this wavelength to map clouds
of interstellar hydrogen gas that are too cold to emit
visible light
 Larmor precession
Larmor precession (named after Joseph Larmor)
❖Is the precession of the magnetic moment of an
object about an external magnetic field.
❖An applied field B acts on the orbital magnetic
moment, by trying to align µl and B parallel to one
another since at parallel energy is minimum.
❖The electrons that are moving in their orbits behave
like gyroscopes and carry precession with respect
to their µl about the direction of the field
❖The processional frequency ωL is called the Lamour
frequency
From the diagram above
The orientational potential energy associated
with this torque
∆𝐸 =
This energy is minimal. Dipole cannot turn
unless energy is supplied.
𝜏⃗ = μ⃗l ×B⃗ , × B⃗

𝑑𝐿
𝜏⃗ =
𝑑𝑡
• Combining the above eqn
𝑑𝐿
= × B⃗
𝑑𝑡
From the figure
𝑑𝐿=L sin𝜃d∅
ωL= , where𝛾 = (gyromagnetic ratio)
❖Objects with a magnetic moment also have angular
momentum and an effective internal electric current
proportional to their angular momentum; these
include
• electrons,
• protons,
• other fermions,
• many atomic and nuclear systems
• classical macroscopic systems.
 Electron Spin
• Spin introduces two additional quantum
numbers to the model of the hydrogen atom.
• Both were discovered by looking at the fine
structure of atomic spectra.
• It is analogous to the intrinsic spin of
extended bodies about their axes, such as
Earth’s daily rotation.
• Spin is quantized in the same manner as
orbital angular momentum.
• Anomalous Zeeman effect can be explained if
electron has spin angular momentum(s)
• The magnitude of the intrinsic spin angular momentum S of
an electron is given by

• Where s is the spin quantum number.

• This is similar to the quantization of L, except that the only
value allowed for s for an electron is s=1/2.
• The spin projection quantum number ms is associated with
the z-components of spin, expressed by

• In general, the allowed quantum numbers are

ms =−s, −s+1, …, 0, …, +s−1, s.
• For the special case of an electron (s=1/2),
ms = −1/2, 1/2.
• The ms =−1/2 state is “spin-down” state and
sz =−1/2;
• The ms = +1/2 state is “spin-up” state and sz
= +1/2.
Figure below:
❖In analogy to the orbital angular momentum, the
magnitude of the electron magnetic moment is

❖According to the special theory of relativity, this value

is low by a factor of 2. Thus, in vector form, the spin
magnetic moment is

=
gs is g- factor of electron =2
❖Expected value =1 but empirically =2
❖Also, spin magnetic moment

❖Also, spin magnetic moment in z-direction

❖An electron is magnetic, so interacts with other
magnetic fields.
❖The interaction of a free electron with an external
(nonuniform) magnetic field, and
• And with a magnetic field produced by the orbital
angular momentum of the electron
Example
1. A hydrogen atom in the ground state is placed in an
external uniform magnetic field (B=1.5T).
Determine the frequency of radiation produced in
a transition between the spin-up and spin-down
states of the electron.
 spin-orbit coupling.
spin-orbit coupling/interaction
• In a hydrogen atom, is the magnetic interaction
between orbital magnetic moment and intrinsic
magnetic moment of the electron
• this interaction is responsible for the fine structure
in atomic spectra, lifting the degeneracy of energy
levels associated with different spin states.
• the spin-orbit interaction causes L and S to couple
and precess around their total angular momentum
𝐽=𝐿+𝑆
❖This results in the quantization
of 𝐽 with possible values
J=L+S,L+S−1,L+S−2,...,|L−S|
❖A value of J must be positive or
zero for a multi-electron system. J values can fall
into series 1/2,3/2,5/2,...or
0,1,2,...
❖The quantum number J is added to
the term symbol as a
subscript to the right of the letter
describing the term.
❖The possible values of the magnitude are
given in terms of a quantum number j by

❖We can then have states in which

❖The l+1/2 states

 correspond
 to the case in which
the vectors L and S have parallel z-components;
for the l-1/2 states, have antiparallel z-components
• For example, when l = 1, j can be ½ or 3/2 .
In another spectroscopic notation, these p-
states are labeled
A full term symbol (2s+1)L J

The interaction of an electron with orbital angular

momentum further splits each level into two
The optical transition
should obey rule
∆𝑙 = ±1 ∆𝑗 = ±1 or 0
• Just as the energy levels of a hydrogen atom
can be split by an external magnetic field,
• So too are the energy levels of a hydrogen
atom split by the internal magnetic fields of the
atom
 DIRECTIONAL QUANTISATION AND STERN
GERLACH
The Stern-Gerlach experiment provides
experimental evidence that
• Electrons have spin angular momentum.
• Experimental demonstration of directional
Quantization

The experiment involved the following steps

➢Silver(Ag) beam of the atom was generated In an
atomic beam furnace and collimated by slits.
➢The experiment passed a collimated stream of
silver (Ag) atoms through an external, nonuniform
magnetic field.
➢The direction of the beam is perpendicular to the
field.
➢The Ag atom has an orbital angular momentum of
zero and contains a single unpaired electron in the
outer shell.
➢Therefore, the total angular momentum of the Ag
atom is due entirely to the spin of the outer electron
(s=1/2).
➢Without the field the magnetic moment and angular
moment of the atom are randomly oriented
➢Non homogeneous field exerts force on the
moment.
• Due to electron spin, the Ag atoms act as tiny
magnets as they pass through the magnetic
field.
• These “magnets” have two possible
orientations, corresponding to the electron's
spin-up and -down states.
• The magnetic field diverts the spin-up atoms in
one direction and the spin-down atoms in
another.
• This produces two distinct bands on a screen
(Figure below).
➢There are only discrete possibilities for the
orientation relative to the field i.e parallel and ant-
parallel
➢An external, nonuniform magnetic field diverts a
beam of electrons in two different directions due
to the quantization of spin angular momentum
 General Rules of Electron Configuration
❖So far, we have studied only hydrogen, the
simplest chemical element.
❖We have found that five quantum numbers can
completely specify an electron in the hydrogen
atom. Those are n, l, ml, ms
❖Two electrons in the n=1 state are denoted as 1s2,
where the superscript indicates the number of
electrons.
❖An electron in the n=2 state with l=1 is denoted
2p.
❖The combination of two electrons in the n=2 and
l=0 state, and three electrons in the n=2 and l=1
state is written as 2s22p3, and so on.
Electronic configuration
• This representation of the electron state is
called the electron configuration of the
atom.
• Electrons in the outer shell of an atom are
called valence electrons.
• Chemical bonding between atoms in a
molecule is explained by the transfer and
sharing of valence electrons.
 Other Rules Govern Electron Configuration

• There is a set of general rules that are used to

figure out the electron configuration of an
atomic species:
• Aufbau Principle,
• Hund's Rule, and
• the Pauli-Exclusion Principle (already
discussed)
Aufbau Principle
▪The Aufbau Principle, also called the building-
up principle, states that electrons occupy
orbitals in order of increasing energy. The
order of occupation is as follows;

▪This order of occupation roughly represents

the increasing energy level of the orbitals.
• Another way to view this order of increasing
energy is by using Madelung's Rule(fig below)
 Hund's Rule
• Hund's Rule states that, when electrons occupy
degenerate orbitals (i.e. same n and l quantum
numbers), they must first occupy the empty orbitals
before double occupying them.
• Furthermore, the most stable configuration results when
the spins are parallel (i.e. all alpha electrons or all beta
electrons).
• Nitrogen, for example, has 3 electrons occupying the 2p
orbital. According to Hund's Rule, they must first occupy
each of the three degenerate p orbitals, namely the
2px orbital, 2py orbital, and the 2pz orbital, and with
parallel spins (Figure 2).
 Pauli-Exclusion Principle
• Wolfgang Pauli postulated that ‘each electron
can be described with a unique set of four
quantum numbers.’
• Therefore, if two electrons occupy the same
orbital, such as the 3s orbital, their spins must
be paired.
• Although they have the same principal quantum
number (n=3), the same orbital angular
momentum quantum number (l=0), and the
same magnetic quantum number (ml=0), they
have different spin magnetic quantum numbers
(ms=+1/2 and ms=-1/2).
• The symbol (↑) indicates an unpaired electron in the
outer shell, whereas the symbol (↑↓) indicates a pair
of spin-up and -down electrons in an outer shell.
• The maximum number of electrons in a subshell
depends on the value of the angular momentum
quantum number, l.
• For a given value l, there are 2l+1 orbital angular
momentum states
• However, each of these states can be filled by two
electrons (spin up and down, ↑↓ ).
• Thus, the maximum number of electrons in a
subshell is

• In the 2s (l=0) subshell, the maximum number of

electrons is 2.
• In the 2p (l=1) subshell, the maximum number of
electrons is 6.
• Therefore, the total maximum number of electrons
in the n=2 shell (including both the l=0 and 1
subshells) is 2+6 or 8.
• In general, the maximum number of electrons in the
nth shell is 2n2.
• Example
• How many subshells are in the n=3 shell?
Identify each subshell and calculate the
maximum number of electrons that will fill each.
Show that the maximum number of electrons that
fill an atom is 2n2
• Solution
• Because n=3, we know that l can be 0, 1, or 2;
thus, there are three possible subshells. In
standard notation, they are labeled the 3s, 3p,
and 3d subshells.
• We use the equation “maximum number of
electrons that can be in a subshell =2(2l+1)” to
calculate the maximum number in each
• The equation “maximum number of electrons
that can be in a shell =2n2” gives the
maximum number in the n=3 shell to be
Maximum number of electrons=2n2 =2(3)2
=2(9)=18