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Electron Interferometer





OVERVIEW


Interferometry inherently depends on the wave nature of the object. As pointed out by De Broglie in his PhD-thesis, particles, including Electrons can behave
like waves (the so called Wave-particle Duality , now explained in the general framework of Quantum Mechanic s). One of the first interferometry experiments with
electrons was the Double-slit Experiment . Since electrons are Charge d, they repell each other, thus rendering the theoretical analysis more difficult than for
uncharged sources like, e.g., Neutron s or Atom s. To obtain high precision the De Broglie Wave Length needs to be small, which again favours neutrons or (heavy)
atoms since they have a higher Mass . Therefore many high precision experiments now deploy Atom Interferometer s based on the Sagnac Effect .