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de broglie wave length and diffraction

alvan15

why does smaller de brogile wavelength mean less diffraction? does diffraction gating formula apply to it?

Reply 1

AHappyStudent

Original post by alvan15

why does smaller de brogile wavelength mean less diffraction? does diffraction gating formula apply to it?

Yes, basically. Just treat the electron wave the same way that you treat light

Reply 2

clockwork30

Basically, yeah you can apply it to the diffraction grating equation but the explanation is; if the wavelength is much smaller, then the suize of the gap through which it diffracts is too large; we know that diffraction is only most pronounced when the size of the gap is about the same size as the size of the wavelength of the electron, thus diffraction is much lower when the wavelength is smaller than the gap. :smile: