Question
Question: What is the conclusion of Davison and Germer experiment on the nature of electrons?...
What is the conclusion of Davison and Germer experiment on the nature of electrons?
Solution
The electron exhibits the particle mature as well as wave nature. The Davisson-Germer experiment validates the earlier hypothesis given by De-Broglie about the wave nature of electrons.
Complete step by step solution:
According to the conclusion obtained by Davisson-Germer experiment it was shown that electrons exhibit wave nature too. This conclusion supports the hypothesis given by De-Broglie regarding wave-particle duality of matter.
In this experiment the accelerated electron beam was bombarded on a Nickel crystal in vacuum from the electron gun. The electron gun is having a heated filament. Thus electrons were scattered and Bragg's law gave the angle of maximum scattering.
According to Bragg's law he states that when the x-ray is incident onto a crystal surface, its angle of incidence θ, will reflect back with the same angle of scattering, θ. And, when the path difference Δx is equal to a whole number multiple of wavelength, constructive interference will occur.
nλ=2dsinθ
Therefore, according to the derivation of Bragg’s Law:
The equation explains the reason for reflection: X-ray beams from the Nickel crystals at particular angles of incidence.
In Bragg's equation, variable d indicates the distance between the atomic layers of Nickel, and the variable λ specifies the wavelength of the incident electron beam.
n is an integer.
Note: Bragg was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 for his contribution in the analysis of crystal structure using X-rays.
Diffraction has been developed to understand the structure of every state of matter by any beam like a beam of ions, protons, electrons, neutrons with a wavelength similar to the length between the molecular structures. And this diffraction gives the idea of duality in nature for electrons.