Electron diffraction: fifty years ago

JAN 01, 1978

A look back at the experiment that established the wave nature of the electron, at the events that led up to the discovery, and at the principal investigators, Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3001830

Richard K. Gehrenbeck

An article that appeared in the December 1927 issue of Physical Review, “Diffraction of Electrons by a Crystal of Nickel,” has been referred to in countless articles, monographs and textbooks as having established the wave nature of the electron—in principle, of all matter. Now, fifty years later, it is fitting to look back at the events that led up to this historical discovery and at the discoverers, Clinton Davisson and Lester Germer. Figure 1 shows them in their lab in 1927, together with their assistant Chester Calbick.

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More about the authors

Richard K. Gehrenbeck, Rhode Island College, Providence, Rhode Island.