Wave-particle duality

Wave

• Light produces interference and diffraction patterns.
• This can only be explained by using waves constuctivly and destructivly interfering.

Particle

• Einstein explained the photoelectric effect by modelling light as a particle (the photon)
• If a photon of light acts as a discrete bundle of energy it can interact with an electron one-on-one
• All the energy of the photon is given to the electron.

Wave-particle duality (de Broglie)

• If 'wave like' light showed particle properties (photons), 'particles' like electrons should be expected to show wave like properties.
• The de Broglie equation relates a wave property (λ) to a moving particle property (mv).
• λ=h/mv
• The de Broglie wave of a partice can be interpereted as a 'probability wave'.

Electron Diffraction

• Diffraction…