Engineering Physics

4.4 Experimental study of matter waves

de Broglie proposed matter waves but he did not prove it experimentally. Many scientists proved the existence of matter waves individually. In 1927, Davisson and Germer in the United States and in 1928 Thomson proved experimentally the existence of matter waves. Also, Stern and others showed the existence of matter waves in connection with molecular and atomic beams.

(a) G.P. Thomson Experiment: The diffraction of electrons by metal foil in G.P. Thomson experiment showed the wave nature of electrons and hence supports the de Broglie hypothesis. Now, we will study in detail the experimental set-up and theory of G.P. Thomson experiment. From the theory, we can estimate the wavelength of the waves associated ...