Wave-particle duality is the quantum mechanical principle that every particle or quantum entity, including light and matter, exhibits both wave-like and particle-like properties depending on the experimental conditions under which it is observed. Albert Einstein's 1905 explanation of the photoelectric effect treated light as discrete quanta, later called photons, while Louis de Broglie extended the idea in 1924 by proposing that particles of matter such as electrons likewise carry an associated wavelength, a hypothesis confirmed by the Davisson-Germer electron diffraction experiment in 1927. The principle is illustrated most famously by the double-slit experiment, in which individual particles build up an interference pattern characteristic of waves, and it remains one of the foundational, still philosophically debated, features of quantum theory.
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The double-slit experiment, run with single particles, is the classic demonstration that matter and light exhibit both wave and particle behavior depending on how they are observed.
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