electronic configuration: Quick Facts

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Facts

Also Known As	electron structure • electronic structure • electron configuration

Photos and Videos

A diagram showing atomic energy levels and electron orbitals, with labeled boxes for s, p, d, and f orbitals from levels 1 to 7, and arrows indicating the order of electron filling. Some higher orbitals are shaded to show they are not occupied by ground-state electrons.

Understanding the arrangement of electrons in atoms

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Topics

orbital valence shell subshell Hund rules electron shell octet valence electron closed shell p-orbital f-orbital electron paramagnetic resonance electron charge electron spectroscopy excitation metastable state electron diffraction positron Franck-Hertz experiment transition optical pumping

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Key People

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Gerhard Herzberg

Canadian physicist

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Friedrich Hund

German physicist

Abegg, Richard Wilhelm Heinrich

Richard Wilhelm Heinrich Abegg

chemist

Periodic Table of the elements concept image (chemistry)

Facts You Should Know: The Periodic Table Quiz

Italian physicist Guglielmo Marconi at work in the wireless room of his yacht Electra, c. 1920.

All About Physics Quiz

Italian-born physicist Dr. Enrico Fermi draws a diagram at a blackboard with mathematical equations. circa 1950.

Physics and Natural Law