Question

Describe davison and german experiment on electron diffraction

Answer 1

The Davisson–Germer experiment was a 1923-7 experiment by Clinton Davissonand Lester Germer at Western Electric (later Bell Labs),[1] in which electrons, scattered by the surface of a crystal of nickel metal, displayed a diffraction pattern. This confirmed the hypothesis, advanced by Louis de Broglie in 1924, of wave-particle duality, and was an experimental milestone in the creation of quantum mechanics.

Answer 2

Davisson and Germer's experiment on electron diffraction demonstrated and established the wave nature of an electron , thereby, confirming the de Broglie hypothesis.

It was demonstrated that electrons diffract similarly like light waves.

Davisson and Germer generated an apparatus( with vacuum inside) in order to determine and estimate the energies of electrons scattered from the surface of a metal( here, nickel is used).

Electrons generated from a heated filament are made to hit the surface of the target metal, which can be rotated in order to check if the scattering of electrons are dependent on the changes in angles.

An electron detector (Faraday box) was used, fixed such that it could be used to observe the scattering of electrons by changing the angles.

Result:

A peak was observed in the intensity of the scattered electrons at certain angles. The appearance of this peak clearly indicated the wave nature of the electrons, and Bragg's law was used further to interpret it.