Add: the smallest possible mechanical wave, which I think is limited by matter (number of atoms).
In: 4
What do you mean by “formed by atoms”? Are you talking about something like an emission spectrum? Or do you mean the quantum-mechanical wavelength of an atom viewed as a wave?
The shortest possible wavelength would be the highest possible energy. So.we need the largest energy gap, which would be a large atom with an ionized electron dropping to the ground state. Ie hydrogen has an ionization energy of 13.6 eV, which is a 91 nm wavelength.
For a larger atom, the formula is E = 13.6 * Z^2 /n^2 where Z is the atomic number of the atom and n is the orbital that the electron is coming from, which in the ground state is 1. If we use Oganesson (element 118) that would be 118366.4 eV or .01nm
There’s no way we could force it to happen, and that would be an extremely dangerous photon, but that’s the theoretical maximum for a single atom to release a photon
7.5 x 10^-11m
The diameter of a hydrogen atom is 2.50 × 10 -11 m, and you need three of them to make a mechanical wave, so…
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