Wave Aspects of Matter

Abstract

Investigations on the nature of light showed that, depending on the kind of experiment performed, light must be described by electromagnetic waves or by particles (photons). Thus the wave aspect appears in the context of diffraction and interference phenomena, whereas the particulate aspect shows up most distinctly in the photoelectric effect. So for light, the relations describing waveparticle duality are already known. But what about material particles? Their particulate nature is rather obvious; do they also possess a wave aspect?