Louis de Broglie was a French physicist and Nobel Prize Winner best known for wave-particle duality. He laid out the converse idea of Einstein's that a wave is a particle. According to de Broglie, a particle is a wave. He was awarded the 1929 Nobel Prize for physics.
Early Life and Science Training of de Broglie
Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond, 7th Duc de Broglie, (1892-1987), was born in Dieppe. He studied history. During the First World War, his work at the Eiffel Tower radio station caught his interest in science. He studied and took a doctorate at the Sorbonne. A brilliant student, de Broglie put forward a startling new idea in the thesis he submitted for his doctorate at the age of 24.
The Einstein Influence
De Broglie was so influenced by Albert Einstein's work on quantum mechanics, in particular, the photoelectric effect showing that waves can behave as particles. In essence, de Broglie's theory destroyed the traditional distinction between waves and particles. Einstein had already begun this process: in 1905, when he had shown that light, long thought to be waves, could also be thought of as particles, which he called 'light quanta.'
Greatly impressed by what Einstein had done, de Broglie took the reverse path, the converse idea that particles can behave as waves. He said that particles such as electrons could be thought of as waves. He even had a formula for the wavelength of the 'associated wave,' the wave that he imagined accompanied a particle as it moves through space.
De Broglie's Ideas Accepted
Revolutionary ideas were common in physics that time with all kinds of experiments going on among the aspiring scientists of the day. The examiners of de Broglie were so amazed, dumbfounded by his ideas that they called in Albert Einstein to give an opinion. Einstein agreed wholeheartedly with de Broglie's proposal and he got his doctorate.
The Wave-Particle Duality
De Broglie had strong support with wave-particle duality. His electron wavelengths flowed naturally from formulas already set down by Max Planck in 1900 and Einstein in 1907. He was also aware of the very important 'allowed orbits' that Niels Bohr had visualized for electrons orbiting an atom in 1913, which explained both the line spectra of gases and the Periodic Table of Elements.
Further, the waves were detected through experiments by Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer in 1927, and apart, by Sir George Thomson. The idea of wave-particle duality was also used by Erwin Schrodinger in his development of quantum mechanics.
De Broglie was the youngest solo prize-winner for his 1929 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una McGovern, Chambers (2002)
Who Discovered What When, by David Ellyard, New Holland (2005)
