The Particle and Wave Nature of Light #
Light behaves as a wave in some situations and as a particle in others; in other words, it possesses what is known as the duality of wave and particle nature.
Like electrons, light also possesses this duality of particle and wave nature.
graph LR; A[Matter]-->B[Particle]; A[Matter]-->C[Wave]; B-->D[Newton's Second Law]; C-->E[Schrödinger's Wave Equation];
History of the Wave-Particle Debate #
| Wave Nature | Time | Content | Particle Nature | Time | Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hooke | 1665 | ||||
| Newton | 1672 | ||||
| Huygens | 1678 | ||||
| Young | 1805 | Light interference experiment (interference phenomenon) | |||
| Fresnel | 1818 | Huygens–Fresnel principle | |||
| Planck | 1900 | Experiment on thermal radiation | |||
| Einstein | 1905 | Photoelectric effect | |||
| Compton | 1923 | Compton effect | |||
| Debye | 1923 | ||||
| Dual Nature of Light | |||||
| de Broglie | 1924 | ||||
| Davisson & Germer | 1927 | Diffraction | |||
| Thomson | 1928 | ||||
| Masashi Kikuchi | 1928 |