double-slit experiment

English

Photons or matter (like electrons) produce an interference pattern when two slits are used

Light from a green laser passing through two slits 0.4mm wide and 0.1mm apart

Noun

double-slit experiment (plural double-slit experiments)

1. (physics) An experiment demonstrating that light and matter can satisfy the seemingly incongruous classical definitions for both waves and particles, regarded as evidence for the fundamentally probabilistic nature of quantum mechanics. A coherent light source, such as a laser beam, illuminates a plate pierced by two parallel slits, and the light passing through the slits is observed on a screen behind the plate, where the wave nature of light causes bright and dark bands due to interference.