From measuring electron charge to exploring particle-wave duality: A new didactic experimental approach

Abstract

This paper points out the strong didactic potential of an experiment originally intended for electron source research. Using a dual stage micro-channel plate in a low-energy electron point projection microscope, electrons are spatially detected one by one. Field electron emission affords wide-ranging intensity, enabling the electron charge to be determined by comparing counting and analog measurements. The same setup is used to illustrate the buildup of an interference pattern from separate low-energy electron detection, thereby enabling the Planck constant to be determined. Both granular and continuous signals are directly observable in this educational approach.

Two Interference Mechanisms of Identical Particles in Quantum Mechanics

“…This interference mechanism can be called equal wavelength interference mechanism. The experiments [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] mentioned above belong to this mechanism.…”

“…There have been experiments showing this kind of interference. The simplest examples are the double-slit and multi-slit interference of electrons [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9], double-slit interference of large molecules [10], and interference of cold neutrons [11]. The Davisson-Germer experiment [12] was to let electrons incident on a crystal to yield diffraction.…”

Bright sources under the projection microscope: using an insulating crystal on a conductor as electron source

“…We will see in this article that a projection microscope is perfectly suited to characterizing sources and in particular their size, whatever the emitted particles [4,5]. An electron source consisting of an insulating crystal deposited on a carbon fiber, as described in several articles [6,7,8,9,10], was characterized with these methods and will be described here.…”