ABSTRACT

In the previous chapter we have seen that electrons and other subatomic particles sometimes exhibit properties similar to those commonly associated with waves: for example, electrons of the appropriate energy are diffracted by crystals in a manner similar to that originally observed in the case of x-rays. We have also seen that the energy and momentum of a free particle can be expressed in terms of the angular frequency and wave vector of the associated plane wave by the de Broglie relations (1.10).