- #1
cragar
- 2,552
- 3
When we fire one electron through a double slit , can't we still get a diffraction pattern even when firing just one electron.
Jeff Reid said:When the electrons are shot thorugh a slit, why is it assumed that the original electrons are the ones that end up exiting the slit, and not some interchange between the original electrons and the electrons from the molecules on the edges of the slit, similar to the way that photons are captured and new photons released when refracted or reflected?
PhilDSP said:However a single electron passing through a very, very thin layer of gold foil will produce a diffraction pattern. Look up G. Thomson's experiments.
ExtravagantDreams said:No, again a single electron by itself can not produce an entire diffraction patter. When you measure this electron's position it exists only in one state. The collection of individual electrons will lead to the pattern due to statistics.
I presume you mean the Rutherford et al. experiment (based on Thomson's theoretical model). It's essentially a very basic LEED experiment.
PhilDSP said:That was George Paget Thomson in Scotland (J. J. Thomson's son) who was the second to verify the De Broglie hypothesis of "matter waves" associated with electrons, shortly after Davidsson and Germer. And those were indeed single electrons which elicited a diffraction pattern that could be photographed. He could vary the velocity thtt the electrons were fired and the size of the diffraction radius would change.
In some instances, as you're apparently pondering, phonons are excited in an otherwise stationary material. But for the gold foil experiment, the wave is associated directly with the solitary traveling electron. But maybe there are still folks who don't believe the de Broglie hypothesis is real?
Electron diffraction is a phenomenon in which electrons passing through a material are diffracted, or scattered, by the material's atomic structure. This results in a pattern of bright and dark spots, similar to the pattern seen in light diffraction experiments.
Electron diffraction occurs when a beam of electrons is directed at a material with regularly spaced atoms. As the electrons pass through the material, they interact with the atoms and are diffracted, creating a diffraction pattern.
Electron diffraction is important in the field of quantum mechanics and has been used to gather information about the atomic and molecular structures of materials. It has also been used in various fields such as material science, chemistry, and biology to understand the composition and behavior of different substances.
The double-slit experiment involves firing a beam of electrons through two narrow slits and observing the resulting diffraction pattern on a screen. This experiment demonstrates electron diffraction by showing the interference pattern created by the diffracted electrons, which is similar to the pattern seen in light diffraction experiments.
Electron diffraction has various real-world applications, including the analysis of crystal structures in materials, determining the molecular structures of substances in chemistry, and studying the atomic structure of biological molecules. It is also used in the development of new materials and technologies, such as in the field of nanotechnology.