Atomic and molecular structure as a research area investigates the spatial arrangement, electronic configuration, and intrinsic quantum properties of atoms and molecules, and how these features determine their spectroscopic, chemical, and physical behavior. It encompasses theoretical and computational methods (e.g., ab initio quantum chemistry, density functional theory, configuration interaction) and experimental techniques (e.g., high-resolution spectroscopy, scattering, synchrotron and XFEL-based probes) to resolve electronic states, bonding patterns, potential energy surfaces, and correlation effects. This field underpins understanding of reactivity, photophysics, materials properties, and the design of novel molecules, clusters, and nanostructures with targeted electronic and structural characteristics.
Researchers at the University of Hamburg, the University of Toulouse, and the DESY and ESRF research institutes have observed for the first time in real time how iron-sulfur nanostructures form in solutions. Using time-resolved ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 28, 2026
0
1
Together with an international team, researchers from the Molecular Physics Department at the Fritz Haber Institute have revealed how atoms rearrange themselves before releasing low-energy electrons in a decay process initiated ...
General Physics
Jan 26, 2026
0
29
Sum-frequency generation (SFG) is a powerful vibrational spectroscopy that can selectively probe molecular structures at surfaces and interfaces, but its spatial resolution has been limited to the micrometer scale by the ...
Nanomaterials
Jan 19, 2026
0
59
Different atoms and ions possess characteristic energy levels. Like a fingerprint, they are unique for each species. Among them, the atomic ion 173Yb+ has attracted growing interest because of its particularly rich energy ...
General Physics
Jan 15, 2026
0
48
Researchers at Kumamoto University, in collaboration with colleagues in South Korea and Taiwan, have discovered that a unique cobalt-based molecule with metal–metal bonds can function as a spin quantum bit (spin qubit)—a ...
Condensed Matter
Jan 5, 2026
0
87
For more than 50 years, scientists have sought alternatives to silicon for building molecular electronics. The vision was elegant; the reality proved far more complex. Within a device, molecules behave not as orderly textbook ...
Nanomaterials
Dec 30, 2025
0
146
Researchers at the University of Jyväskylä have discovered a simple way to program synthetic molecules so they can form specific spiral-like structures by embedding instructions directly into their sequence. This breakthrough ...
Biotechnology
Dec 11, 2025
0
0
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have shown that DNA inflexibility, or rigidity, inside the nucleosome regulates the positioning of INO80. This highlights that the physical structure and shape ...
Cell & Microbiology
Nov 24, 2025
0
45
A research team from the Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology (APM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made significant progress in precisely measuring the vibrational-rotational spectra ...
General Physics
Nov 14, 2025
0
78
Pictures of DNA often look very tidy—the strands of the double helix neatly wind around each other, making it seem like studying genetics should be relatively straightforward. In truth, these strands aren't often so perfectly ...
Biotechnology
Nov 11, 2025
0
1
