Louis Victor Pierre Raymond, known as Louis de Broglie (1892 – 1987), French physicist, introduced the electron wave theory in his doctoral thesis, a thesis that won him the Nobel Prize in physics in 1929
. matter having wave behavior (electron wave) was criticized by a large part of the scientific community when released, but later proved experimentally.
Particle-wave duality is expressed mathematically by relating the wavelength associated with matter as a function of the momentum it has (see equation 1).
Equation 1
Where h represents the Planck constant (m2 kg / s) and Q the momentum (kg.m/s)
The diffraction phenomenon, before the de Broglie hypothesis, was presented only by waves. With the proposal of matter waves, it was verified that the electron beam presents this phenomenon also extending to any type of matter.
The electron microscope has in its working principle the particle-wave behavior.
