Virtual Hydrogen, a virtual reality hydrogen visualization tool: from atomic to molecular orbitals

Aiming to extend possibilities of virtual reality (VR) as scientific, education tools, we have been developing the VR environment called “Virtual Hydrogen” for visualizing, in an immersive 3D space, the quantum atomic orbitals or wave functions of the hydrogen atom, which is certainly the most important subject lectured in undergraduate physics and chemistry classes. Our goal is to enable students to experience attractive and enjoyable scenarios which make it more amenable to master the concepts of quantum mechanics or quantum chemistry. We have been able to visualize stereoscopically the 21 most fundamental hydrogen atomic or-bitals, in a more vivid way than are presented in physics and chemistry textbooks. We are also attempting to visualize the molecular orbitals of the hydrogen ion molecule, H + 2 as an extension of the study so far carried out.