 WAVE-PARTICLE DUALITY

Wave properties of Particle

Wave nature of particle,

De Broglie waves, group waves,
Phase velocity & group velocity,
Davison-Germer experiment
Uncertainty principle and its application

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Light has a dual nature
Wave (electromagnetic) - Interference
- Diffraction

Particle (photons) - Photoelectric effect

- Compton effect
Wave - Particle Duality for light
What about Matter?
If light, which was traditionally understood as a wave
also turns out to have a particle nature.
The matter, which is traditionally understood as
particles, also have a wave nature?

Yes!
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 Louis de Broglie’s hypothesis
1905: Light behaves like a particle: p = h/
1924: Matter behaves like a wave

h

it turns out that everything's p
kind of mixed together at the
fundamental microscopic level. de Broglie’s wavelength

Both: Wave if  >> scale

Particle if  << scale
Hypothesis in 1924, Nobel prize in 1929
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 Louis de Broglie, theoretical physicist , was the first
recipient of the Kalinga Prize

The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an

award given by UNESCO for exceptional skill in presenting
scientific ideas to lay people. It was created in 1952,
following a donation from Biju Patnaik, Founder President
of the Kalinga Foundation Trust in India.

Kalinga, Utkal are the ancient name of the state Odisha

De Broglie had intended a career in humanities, and received his first degree in history.
Afterwards he turned his attention toward mathematics and physics and received a
degree in physics.
With the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he offered his services to the army in
the development of radio communications.

Maurice de Broglie,a French physicist, was the elder brother of the Louis de Broglie.
Maurice de Broglie experimentally worked on X-Ray diffraction and spectroscopy
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the idea is: matter, because the momentum is so so so large
compared to the photons, we'll have an extremely short
wavelength.

Exp: What is the De Broglie wavelength of an electron that's moving at

2.2 x 106 m/s ?
Now, this is really really really fast. 2.2 million meters per second. But
it's not relativistic. It's still slow compared to the speed of light so we
can still do everything fairly classically.
p = mv = 9.1 x 10-31x 2.2 x 106 kg m/s = 2 x 10-24 N.s
 = h/p = 6.626 x 10-34 / 2 x 10-24 = 3.33 x 10-10 m
Now this is an important number: this speed: the kind of average speed of an
electron in the ground state of hydrogen.

Let’s estimate for De Broglie wavelength

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 For a non-relativistic free particle:
Momentum is p = mv, here v is the speed of the particle
For free particle total energy, E, is kinetic energy

h h h p 2 mv2
B    EK 
p mv 2 Em 2m 2
 Bullet: m = 0.1 kg; v = 1000 m/s

 λB ~ 6.63×10-36 m

 Electron at 4.9 V potential:

m = 9.11×10-31 kg;
 λB ~ 5.5×10-10 m = 5.5 Å
E~4.9 eV
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• Wavelength of electron with 50eV kinetic energy
p2 h2 h
K      1.7  10 10
m
2me 2me  2
2me K

• Wavelength of Nitrogen molecule at room temperature

3kT
K , Mass  28m u
2
h
  2.8 1011 m
3MkT
• Wavelength of Rubidium(87) atom at 50nK
h
  1.2 106 m
3MkT
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 Particle Wave
Our traditional Our traditional understanding
understanding of a particle… of a wave….

“Localized” - definite
position, momentum, “de-localized” – spread out
confined in space in space and time.
How do we associate a wave nature to a particle ?
What could represent both wave and particle ?
Find a description of a particle which is consistent with our notion of both particles
and waves……
Fits the “wave” description
“Localized” in space

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 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
 It is an equipment used for observing
the magnified image of the sample.
 Increased resolution due to lower
wavelength of the sample
 It is also used for elemental analysis
by attaching energy dispersive X-ray Nanostructures
Spectrometer (EDAX).

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Optical Microscope Vs SEM

Optical Microscope SEM

Low resolution
(Low magnification)
Low cost
Uses light sources
Optical lenses
Doest not require vacuum
Quick process
Any sample can be visualized
High resolution
( High magnification)
High cost
Uses electrons
Electro-magnetic lenses
Require vacuum
More time is required for
scanning
Sample preparation is
required to make the surface
conducting or semiconducting

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