Measuring Orbitals: Provocation or Reality?

Can complex orbitals really be measured? Orbital functions can indeed be reconstructed from measured data by various approaches. Now even femtosecond measurements can be used, though the results are still less accurate than those achieved with purely theoretical methods. The HOMO of the N2 molecule (see picture) has been reconstructed directly from experimental laser‐spectroscopic interference intensity measurements by means of computer algorithms.