If the two parts of the electron waves had formed simultaneously at the two protons, the pattern should have been symmetric around the center of the molecule. Our data shows that when the light is parallel to the hydrogen molecule, the resulting interference pattern is asymmetric. By recording and analyzing hundreds of thousands such events, we could visualize the interference created by the electron waves. We shined photons on hydrogen molecules and, with a special measuring device called reaction microscope, we observed the angle under which the electron emerged from the molecule. In a recent experiment, we utilized this simplest double-slit setup to investigate the movement of a photon inside the hydrogen molecule. Both centers release their part of the electron cloud and the wave-properties of the emitted electron result in an interference pattern. When a photon (a light particle) is absorbed by the molecule, an electron is emitted. The density of the clouds and the chance to locate an electron is highest at the two centers (determined by the positions of the protons). The electrons are better imagined as clouds that cover the molecule. The hydrogen molecule consists of two protons and two electrons, which do not have a well-defined position inside the molecule. Nature's simplest manifestation of the double-slit experiment is electron emission from a hydrogen molecule. Where they reinforce each other, the chance of finding the electron is increased, and where they eliminate one another, the chance is zero.
![hydrogen molecule hydrogen molecule](https://assets.isu.pub/document-structure/200715001436-8ab681997ae2417396fa8bf33274c506/v1/ed5910eddfd3f15cc88555deec2c3c5e.jpg)
When we measure where the electron-particle emerges behind the wall, we find that this is determined by the interaction of the two partial electron-waves. because of the electron-wave manifestation, the electron passes through both slits simultaneously and the two partial waves interfere like the surface waves on the pond. For example, two stones dropped in a pond at two positions simultaneously create such an interference pattern on the surface, where the ripples from both overlap.īoth particle and wave-behavior play a role in the famous double-slit experiment: A single electron comes upon a wall with two small slits. One typical wave phenomenon is interference, where crests and troughs of two or more waves overlap and reinforce (or eliminate) each other.
![hydrogen molecule hydrogen molecule](http://www.ingridscience.ca/sites/default/files/images/activities/img_2844_1.jpg)
Depending on the circumstances of the observation, a fundamental particle–like an electron–shows either wave- or particle-like behavior. The wave-particle duality is arguably one of the most intriguing concepts of quantum mechanics.