The Wave Nature of

Particles

Goals
To study particles as waves, de Broglie waves
To consider particles as waves with electron
diffraction and electron microscopy
To state and explain the difficult conceptual
concept of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle
To study the general tool for description of a
systemwave functions
To consider the wide-ranging coverage and
implications of the wave description for an
electron in chemical systems, the Schrdinger
equation

Introduction

At the turn of the 20th century,

Albert Einstein helped lead
science to light as a particle and
waveparticle duality. The next
logical step was not far behind.
De Broglie, Heisenberg, and
eventually Schrdinger
developed a formalism to treat
the particle (an electron) as a
wave spawning the new
adventure, quantum theory.

The electron micrograph of a

flys foot depends on waveinterference properties of a
fundamental atomic particle,
the electron.

De Broglie waves

If you asked the baseball

pitcher about the wavelength
of his fastball, hed likely
send you off to deep in the
outfield. But, despite the
seeming conundrum,
macroscopic objects do have
wave properties, and there is
particlewave duality. The
part thats so hard to see is
the wavelengths of de
Broglie waves. For fastballs
and rifle bullets, they have
wavelengths smaller than
atomic nuclei by orders of
magnitude. The genesis of
the idea is shown in Figure
39.2 at right.

Electron diffraction sets a foundation for microscopy

Heated filaments and electrostatic lenses can

create and manipulate beams of electrons for
experimentation. Refer to Figure at the bottom of
the slide.

Graphs of the results for electron scattering are

shown in Figure at right.

Probabilities and electron interference

Electrons flowing through a slit will form interference patterns like those shown in
the Figure.

Heisenbergs Uncertainty Principle (HUP)

Heisenberg stated that you cant know the position and momentum of a particle
simultaneously. The principle applies in other applications such as spectral-line
width and laser-pulse duration, preventing high-resolution femtosecond
spectroscopy.
There is HUP between momentum and position along the same space dimension.
There is also HUP between energy and time.

Two-slit interference
The predicted maximum grows in as the quantity of measurements
increases.

Electron microscopy

The instrument depends on

electrons as waves interfering.

Schrdingers wave equation

The process presumes that a proper operator working on an
equation which rightly describes the potential and kinetic
components of a system will return eigenvalues and
eigenvectors of the system.
For example, a vibrational Schrdinger equation can be built
upon Hookes Law. When the Hamiltonian operator operates on
the wave equation, eigenvalues will come back as the ascending
energies of sequentially higher vibrational levels.

Wave packets

A wave packet can be built by superposition of a large number of similar oscillating

waves with different wave numbers but similar amplitudes. This package of waves
can be set into motion to circumvent the uncertainty principle. The packet
samples a problem from many different starting points so the outcome will contain
elements of the answer, each from a different wave.

Fourier analysis is necessary to unpack the components of a wave packet to

discern the pieces of the puzzle one by one. Figure below illustrates a wave
packet.