Question

What experiment supports an electron as wave ?

Answer 1

1. Electron behaves both like a particle and as a wave.
2. Electron has a wave-like nature which was supported by an experiment.
3. In the experiment, an electron gun made up of tungsten filament with Barium oxide ($\mathrm{BaO}$) coated over was heated over low voltage.
4. This gun emits electrons when a potential difference from a high voltage is supplied. These electrons accelerate to a particular velocity.
5. These emitted electrons were made to pass through a cylinder with fine holes along the axis producing a fine collimating beam.
6. This beam was then made to fall on the surface of nickel crystal. It was observed that the electrons were scattered in various directions.
7. The intensity produced by the beam of electrons was measured with the help of an electron detector.
8. This experiment is known as Davisson- Germer experiment.
   
9. When the variation of intensity and the angle of diffraction was observed, the wavelength of matter waves was calculated to be $0.165nm$.
10. Also the De Broglie relation gave the same wavelength.
11. Thus the experiment also supported the De-Broglie's hypothesis.