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The Davisson–Germer experiment confirmed the de Broglie hypothesis that matter has wave-like behavior. This, in combination with the Compton effect discovered by Arthur Compton (who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1927), [ 9 ] established the wave–particle duality hypothesis which was a fundamental step in quantum theory.
Lester Halbert Germer (October 10, 1896 – October 3, 1971) was an American physicist. [1] With Clinton Davisson, he proved the wave-particle duality of matter in the Davisson–Germer experiment, which was important to the development of the electron microscope. These studies supported the theoretical work of De Broglie.
Electron diffraction and the Davisson–Germer experiment Davisson (left) with Lester Germer (right) 1927. Diffraction is a characteristic effect when a wave is incident upon an aperture or a grating, and is closely associated with the meaning of wave motion itself. In the 19th century, diffraction was well established for light and for ripples ...
One month after Davisson and Germer's work appeared, Thompson and Reid published their electron-diffraction work with higher kinetic energy (thousand times higher than the energy used by Davisson and Germer) in the same journal. Those experiments revealed the wave property of electrons and opened up an era of electron-diffraction study.
The concept that matter behaves like a wave was proposed by French physicist Louis de Broglie (/ d ə ˈ b r ɔɪ /) in 1924, and so matter waves are also known as de Broglie waves. The de Broglie wavelength is the wavelength , λ , associated with a particle with momentum p through the Planck constant , h : λ = h p . {\displaystyle \lambda ...
It happened that Davisson also attended that talk. Davisson returned to his lab in the US to switch his experimental focus to test the wave property of electrons. [11] In 1927, the wave nature of electrons was empirically confirmed by two experiments. The Davisson–Germer experiment at Bell Labs measured electrons scattered from Ni metal surfaces.
The experiment belongs to a general class of "double path" experiments, in which a wave is split into two separate waves (the wave is typically made of many photons and better referred to as a wave front, not to be confused with the wave properties of the individual photon) that later combine into a single wave.
He is also noted for his unpublished proposal of the wave-like diffraction of electron particles by a crystal. The subsequent Davisson–Germer experiment showing this effect led to a Nobel Prize in Physics. [2] Between 1962 and 1968 he was a Professor of Geophysics at Princeton University.