{"id":25562,"date":"2019-11-28T22:31:34","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T11:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=25562"},"modified":"2019-11-28T22:31:36","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T11:31:36","slug":"the-first-ever-photograph-of-light-as-both-a-particle-and-wave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=25562","title":{"rendered":"The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and wave"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Light_As_Particle_And_Wave.jpg\" alt=\"Light_As_Particle_And_Wave\" class=\"wp-image-25563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Light_As_Particle_And_Wave.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Light_As_Particle_And_Wave-300x288.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When UV light hits a metal surface, it causes an emission of electrons. Albert Einstein explained this &#8220;photoelectric&#8221; effect by proposing that light \u2013 thought to only be a wave \u2013 is also a stream of particles. Even though a variety of experiments have successfully observed both the particle- and wave-like behaviors of light, they have never been able to observe both at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Quantum mechanics tells us that light can behave simultaneously as a particle or a wave. However, there has never been an experiment able to capture both natures of light at the same time; the closest we have come is seeing either wave or particle, but always at different times. Taking a radically different experimental approach, EPFL scientists have now been able to take the first ever snapshot of light behaving both as a wave and as a particle. The breakthrough work is published in Nature Communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A research team led by Fabrizio Carbone at EPFL has now carried out an experiment with a clever twist: using electrons to image light. The researchers have captured, for the first time ever, a single snapshot of light behaving simultaneously as both a wave and a stream of particles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2015-03-particle.html\">https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2015-03-particle.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When UV light hits a metal surface, it causes an emission of electrons. Albert Einstein explained this &#8220;photoelectric&#8221; effect by proposing that light \u2013 thought to only be a wave \u2013 is also a stream of particles. Even though a variety of experiments have successfully observed both the particle- and wave-like behaviors of light, they &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/?p=25562\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The first ever photograph of light as both a particle and wave&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25562","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25562"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25562\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25564,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25562\/revisions\/25564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tomgrimshaw.com\/tomsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}