I was thinking about atoms, and then I came up with this: How would an atom visible to the naked eye look? What would be its half life and chemical properties? Could it even exist? Edit: “Seeable”, in this question means be like so you can reliably hold it too. It’s like an atom being the size of a blueberry of marble.
Asked
Active
Viewed 342 times
1 Answers
4
Thanks for your question. Interestingly, the size of the atom doesn't really matter to whether we could see it. Instead, it's the strength of the atom's interaction with light that matters, and this is something that can be engineered by the environment where the atom is. So, it's not strictly a property intrinsic to the atom.
For example, consider graphene (the one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms). A sheet of graphene suspended in vacuum would absorb a couple percent of the visible light, and thus it would be pretty hard to see with the naked eye. However, if you put it on a suitably prepared substrate, the interference of light between the graphene and substrate can enhance light absorption to well over 10%, which is clearly visible. The same kind of engineering could be possible for a smaller system of a few or even one atom (although more work would need to go into enhancing the light interaction).
In addition, it is possible for a person to see a single photon of light. Many atoms (that actually exist) can be contrived to emit light in the visible range, and some in green, which is where our eyes are most sensitive. Of course, for a single atom, the light will come out a single photon at a time, but it would be possible to see this in dark conditions with odds better than pure guessing. This question discusses an example of a visible single atom.
Gilbert
- 12,618