THE WAVE

PROPERTIES
OF
PARTICLES
TUTORIAL 2
De Broglie hypothesis
Louis de Broglie postulated that because photons have both wave and
particle characteristics, perhaps all forms of matter have both properties.

According to de Broglie, electrons, just like light, have a dual particle–wave

nature.

𝒉
The momentum of a photon can be expressed as 𝒑=
𝝀

Then, 𝒉𝒄
𝐄= = 𝑷𝒄
𝝀
Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence 𝑬 = 𝒎𝒄𝟐
 De Broglie suggested that this equation is a completely general one that applies to
material particles as well as to photons.

De Broglie assumed that particles of well-defined momentum also have a

wavelength, as given above, the de Broglie wavelength is:

𝒉 𝒉
𝝀= =
𝒑 𝒎𝒗

where m is the relativistic mass.

In general, for a body with rest mass m0 and moving with constant velocity v, the mass
m of the body during its motion is given by:
𝒎𝒐
𝒎= ⇒ 𝒎 = 𝜸𝒎𝒐
𝟐
𝟏−𝒗 ൗ 𝟐
𝒄
 𝒎 𝟐 𝒗𝟐 𝒑𝟐
𝑬 = 𝟏ൗ𝟐 𝒎𝒗𝟐 = =
𝟐𝒎 𝟐𝒎
𝒑𝟐 = 𝟐𝒎𝑬

𝒑 = 𝟐𝒎𝑬
• De Broglie wavelength depends on momentum p and not on the size of the
particle.
“The larger of momentum of particle, the smaller its wavelength”
• If the de Broglie wavelength is comparable to dimension of the particle the
wave behavior may appear but if the de Broglie wavelength is smaller than
dimension of the particle the matter behavior will appear.
• De Broglie’s waves are not EM waves, it is called “mater waves”.
 De Broglie Explanation of Bohr’s Quantization Condition

In the Bohr model, Bohr postulated that each energy level of a hydrogen atom corresponds
to a specific stable circular orbit of the electron around the nucleus. In a break with
classical physics, Bohr further postulated that an electron in such an orbit does not radiate.
Instead, an atom radiates energy only when an electron makes a transition from an orbit of
energy Ei to a different orbit with lower energy Ef , emitting a photon of energy hf = Ei - Ef
in the process.

Bohr found that the magnitude of the electron’s angular momentum is quantized; that is,
this magnitude must be an integral multiple of h/2π.

𝒏𝒉
So, Bohr’s argument led to 𝑳 = 𝒎𝒗𝒏 𝒓𝒏 = 𝒏ћ= = 𝑷𝒏 𝒓𝒏
𝟐𝝅
For the wave to “come out even” and join onto itself smoothly, the circumference of this
circle must include some whole number of wavelengths.

Hence for an orbit with radius r n and circumference 𝟐𝝅𝒓𝒏 , we must have 𝟐𝝅𝒓𝒏 = 𝒏𝝀𝒏 ,
where 𝝀𝒏 is the wavelength and n = 1, 2, 3, ….
𝒏𝒉
𝟐𝝅𝒓𝒏 = 𝒏𝝀𝒏 =
𝑷𝒏
This equation means that, the orbit will be allowed only when the circumference of
circular orbit (2r n) equals integral number of electron de Broglie wavelength (nn).
In this case, the electron’s wavelength interferes constructively and represented a
standing wave that closed on itself.
Consider two waves with equal amplitudes but different angular frequencies 𝝎1
and 𝝎2.We can represent the waves mathematically as

𝝍 𝒙, 𝒕 = 𝑨 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝒌𝒙 − 𝝎𝒕) or 𝝍 𝒙, 𝒕 = 𝑨 𝐜𝐨𝐬(𝒌𝒙 − 𝝎𝒕)

where,
𝟐𝝅 𝒉𝝎
𝝎 = 𝟐𝝅𝒇 = ⇒ 𝑬 = 𝒉𝒇 = ⇒ 𝑬 = ℏ𝝎
𝑻 𝟐𝝅
𝟐𝝅 𝒉 𝒉𝒌
𝒌= ⇒ 𝝀= ⇒ 𝑷= = ℏ𝒌
𝝀 𝑷 𝟐𝝅

The wave vanishes (zeros or nodes) when

𝒌𝒙 − 𝝎𝒕 = 𝒏𝝅
A single wave has the same amplitude everywhere in space. By adding a second wave,
however, there is something different about the in-phase points compared with the out-
of-phase points.

The small region of constructive interference is called a

wave packet.

This localized region of space is different from all other

regions.
We can identify the wave packet as a particle because it has
the localized nature of a particle!
The location of the wave packet corresponds to the particle’s
position.
For an individual wave, the speed is given by

𝒌𝒅𝒙 − 𝝎𝒅𝒕 = 𝟎

𝒅𝒙 𝝎
𝒗𝒑𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒆 = =
𝒅𝒕 𝒌
This speed is called the phase speed because it is the rate of advance of a crest on a single
wave, which is a point of fixed phase.

The phase speed of a wave is the ratio of the coefficient of the time variable t to the
coefficient of the space variable x in the equation representing the wave,

𝝍 𝒙, 𝒕 = 𝑨 𝐬𝐢𝐧(𝒌𝒙 − 𝝎𝒕)
Group Velocity of a Pilot Wave-Packet
The velocity of a wave packet is the angular frequency differential with respect to the
wave number and it is different from the phase velocity, mathematically

𝒅𝝎 𝒅ℏ𝝎 𝒅𝑬
𝒗𝒈 = = =
𝒅𝒌 𝒅ℏ𝒌 𝒅𝑷
𝒑𝟐
𝑬 = 𝟏ൗ𝟐 𝒎𝒗𝟐 =
𝟐𝒎
𝒅𝑬 𝒅 𝒑𝟐 𝟏
𝒗𝒈 = = = 𝟐𝑷 = 𝒗
𝒅𝑷 𝒅𝑷 𝟐𝒎 𝟐𝒎

𝝎 𝑬 𝑷𝟐 Τ𝟐𝒎 𝑷 𝒗
𝒗𝒑 = = = = =
𝒌 𝑷 𝑷 𝟐𝒎 𝟐
Therefore, the group speed of the wave packet is identical to the speed of the particle
that it is modeled to represent, giving us further confidence that the wave packet is a
reasonable way to build a particle.
 Examples
1- A) What is the energy in joules and electron volts of a photon of 420-nm (violet
light)? B) what is the kinetic energy of electrons ejected from calcium by 420-nm,
given that the binding energy (work function) of electrons for calcium metal 2.71 eV.

2- For an electron having de Broglie wavelength of 0.167 nm. A) calculate the electron
velocity, assuming its nonrelativistic. B) calculate the electron’s kinetic energy in eV.

3- A certain photon has a momentum of 1.50×10−27 kg m/s. What will be the photon’s
de Broglie wavelength?

4- Calculate de Broglie wavelength for an electron with velocity 107 m/s

5- Calculate de Broglie wavelength for an electron with a kinetic energy of

a) 50 eV.
b) b) 2 MeV.
6- what is the required potential difference of an electron for the de Broglie
wavelength to be 10-10 m.

7- An object with a mass of 50-g and a velocity 40 m/s what is the de Broglie
wavelength for that object.

8- Calculate the kinetic energy and the de Broglie wavelength for a proton moving
from rest. If the wavelength of this proton is two times the wavelength of an object with
energy 1KeV, what’s the mass of this object?

9- Calculate the ration between the wavelength of a bullet with a mass of 10-g an a
velocity 500 m/s and an electron under a potential difference of 150 V.

10- A proton and an electron were accelerated from rest with the same potential
difference, which has the largest wavelength?