Scientists have received the image of light, which behaves like a wave and a particle at the same time

Scientists from Switzerland and the United States for the first time managed to capture a light that behaves simultaneously as a wave and as a particle. For the experiment, a unique electron microscope was used in the Swiss EPFL laboratory.

From school we know the principle of wave-particle duality - in some cases, the light behaves like a wave, and in some - like a set of particles (photons). Albert Einstein used this principle, explaining why some metals emit electrons when light falls on them. However, up to this point, the experiment, which allowed to see how this happens, could not be set. Now, scientists have managed to do something like a photo of light, in which particles and waves are visible.

For the experiment, scientists directed the laser to a tiny metal wire with a diameter of 8 * 10 ^-8 m, in which light passed in the form of a wave in one and the other direction. Meeting with itself, the light formed a standing wave, which in turn also emitted light, but in the form of particles. The flow of electrons directed to the right place showed what is happening there in all its quantum beauty.
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The electrons interacted with the standing wave, and because of this, their speed changed. Using a super-fast microscope, the places where these changes occurred were calculated, and thus the image of the wave was obtained. At the same time, the electrons interacted with the photons, exchanging energy quanta in this case, and these changes were captured as an interaction of electrons with particles.