Innovation in engineering requires clear understanding of physics of the concerned phenomena in any engineering application. This article gives clear scientific answers of two disturbing questions concerning fundamental phenomena in any electromagnetic system: “Is the light a flow of waves or particles?” and “Is the electric current a flow of particles or waves?” Such answers solve a puzzle in physics literature called the duality confusion and lead to innovative understandings of two interesting phenomena; the photovoltaic and magnetocaloric effects. Having such innovative understanding, it was possible to introduce in this paper verified concepts to robust designs of multijunction solar cells, optical fibers and magnetocaloric refrigerators. It was also possible to introduce a universal system of units that deletes redundancies in the SI system of units. At the end; it was shown that the results of Faraday’s experiment, known as Faraday’s effect, represent a proof of the introduced innovative understanding.
Innovation in engineering requires clear understanding of physics of the concerned phenomena in any engineering application. This article gives clear scientific answers of two disturbing questions concerning fundamental phenomena in any electromagnetic system: “Is the light a flow of waves or particles?” and “Is the electric current a flow of particles or waves?” Such answers solve a puzzle in physics literature called the duality confusion and lead to innovative understandings of two interesting phenomena; the photovoltaic and magnetocaloric effects. Having such innovative understanding, it was possible to introduce in this paper verified concepts to robust designs of multijunction solar cells, optical fibers and magnetocaloric refrigerators. It was also possible to introduce a universal system of units that deletes redundancies in the SI system of units. At the end; it was shown that the results of Faraday’s experiment, known as Faraday’s effect, represent a proof of the introduced innovative understanding.
According to a previously introduced entropy approach, it is possible to clarify the confusions of the duality concept that electrons and light may behave as waves or particles. In other words, the electron is clearly defined in this paper as a particle and the light is neatly defined as waves. Such an approach considered the flow of electric charges as a flow of ionized waves and the magnetic flux as electromagnetic waves of magnetic potential. By a similar entropy approach, the particle’s kinetic energy is defined also as electromagnetic waves. So, the electron can be defined as an energized particle whose electric charge, magnetic energy and kinetic energy are forms of electromagnetic waves. According to these definitions and similarity of the mechanisms and laws characterizing the flow of mass and energy in general, the flow of electrons can be postulated as a simultaneous flow of two energy-components; particulized energy and wave energy. Hence, the electron doesn’t have a dual nature. Rather, its behavior as a particle or as waves depends on the relative contributions of such components in the electron’s flow. Reviewing the results of de-Broglie’s experiments, it is possible to consider the flow of any particles as a simultaneous flow of waves and particles. Introducing the definition of the flow of electric charges as ionized waves, the photoelectric-effect can be postulated as an ionization process of the incident radiation during its reflection into an electric field. Similarly, the photovoltaic phenomena are postulated as a result of a photorefractive effect that may induce an electric potential into the incident radiation when crossing the electrically biased p-n junctions of photocells. Such postulates eliminate the confusing particle-property of light and prove that light has a wave-nature only. The truth of the introduced postulates is proven through finding plausible explanation of the sintering phenomena and thermoelectricity. Finally, this paper succeeded in introducing plausible explanations of results of Thompson’s experiment and other phenomena that end the confusions in defining the true nature of light and electrons as waves and particles.
According to an entropy approach and by reviewing the similarity between laws characterizing the flow of heat and electric charges, electric charges were defined as electromagnetic waves that possess an electrical potential or simply as ionized photons. Accordingly, the flow of electrons was defined as a simultaneous flow of particulate energy and wave energy. Such definitions led to clear the confusions of duality properties of electrons and light waves, conflicts in the SI system of units and to explain the difference between the calculated drift speed of electrons and the speed of electricity or charges in conductors. However, Einstein considered the electron to be a negative charge of unknown nature during his analysis of the photoelectric effect. Einstein presented his hypothesis that light may behave as a particle to find a plausible explanation of the photoelectric effect. He found the measured cutoff frequency of light below which light might not eject electrons from metal-surfaces in photocells regardless of how much light is shone on the surface as a proof of truth of his hypothesis. Such frequency may be explained also, according to the previously introduced definitions, as the minimum energy quanta that may gain a quantized potential in photocells. This explanation may find plausible explanations of the found measurements of the photoelectric effects for different metal surfaces, stopping voltages into photocells and the photoelectric effect of X-rays. Einstein’s hypothesis of the photoelectric effect failed to find plausible explanations of such measurement results. According to the principles of conservation of momentum, there is a minimum quantity of photons that may lead to bouncing an atomic electron out of its orbit. So, considering Einstein’s theory as a perfect hypothesis that explains the photoelectric effect may be a misconception.
AbstractWave–particle duality is often presented as an intrinsic property of light, a fundamental enigma of quantum mechanics that requires accepting light as both wave and particle depending on the experiment. This paper challenges that narrative by demonstrating that duality is not a law of nature but a didactic artifact — one that obscures a far simpler and more consistent physical reality. Light behaves as a classical electromagnetic wave, while the discreteness observed in interactions arises exclusively from the quantised nature of matter, not the field itself. The semiclassical model, in which a classical electromagnetic field interacts with quantised detectors, fully explains all optoelectronic phenomena relevant to electrical engineering, from the photoelectric effect to the behavior of CMOS sensors, without ever invoking the concept of light as a particle. Historical and experimental evidence supports this view: Fowler’s 1931 measurements revealed that the photoelectric threshold smears at temperatures above absolute zero due to the Fermi–Dirac statistics of electrons in metals, not because of any quantisation of light. Hübel’s 1987 school experiments confirmed these findings in an accessible educational setting, while Herrmann’s 1994 framework demonstrated that the external photoelectric effect can be described as a three-step process — penetration depth of radiation, escape depth of electrons, and the work function — none of which require the existence of photons. A simple and inexpensive experiment, costing around 150 euros and fitting on a kitchen table, illustrates this clearly: a laser pointer, a precision double slit, and a lensless digital camera separate the three phases of the process — emission as a quantised matter process, propagation as a classical Maxwell wave, and detection through the band structure of the silicon sensor. The only limitation of this model, second-order intensity correlations, lies far beyond the scope of typical electrical engineering applications. In conclusion, for electrical engineers, the photon is best understood as a finite electromagnetic wave train. The discreteness of interaction with matter does not originate from the wave train but from the matter itself. This paper argues for replacing the duality narrative with a semiclassical model that is physically precise, didactically clearer, and professionally essential for understanding modern optoelectronics.
The wave-particle duality of quantum mechanics has always been an unsolved problem in physics. This article attempts to use one of the properties to explain the other, so as to eliminate the confusion of quantum mechanics probability waves. Specifically, this article finds that the discreteness of energy is the inherent property of all waves, so this article explains the particle nature of light from the perspective of light wave, thereby eliminating the confusion of light’s wave-particle duality; in addition, this article found that microscopic matter particles are only suitable for discussing the number of scattered particles or energy flow density, not their position and momentum, when they are forced to discuss their position and momentum, it will inevitably lead to confusion about probability waves, when only discussing the number of scattered particles or energy flow density, its volatility can be explained from the perspective of particle nature, thereby eliminating the confusion of microscopic matter particle probability waves. When the attribute of light as a wave is established, the light needs to overcome the Hamiltonian of the medium in different constraint systems (gravitational fields) during the propagation process, which will produce a universal redshift phenomenon, this can provide a new understanding of cosmic redshift; when the property of light as a wave is established, it means that the speed of light is a constant speed relative to the medium, which can provide a new understanding of the principle of constant speed of light.
The simplest but deepest questions of the philosophy of quantum mechanics are these: Are quantum systems waves, or are they particles? Are they both or are they neither? When light bounces an electron out of the surface of an alkali metal it behaves like a particle. Light carries momentum but also a punch. Just as there is no such thing as half a punch, so there is no such thing as half a quantum of light. On the other hand, the shadow formed on a screen by an object has soft edges, edges which get softer as the object is moved away from the screen. Light exhibits the phenomena of diffraction and interference and so is wavelike. This dual behaviour of light, and indeed of matter itself, is called wave-particle duality. The wave nature of a quantum system is reflected in wave mechanics which assigns a wave-function to the system. But the dual nature of light was noticed before Schrodinger developed the wave-mechanical formalism in 1926. In fact, it goes back at least as far as Einsteins explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905. Wave-particle duality is not something that arises within the quantum mechanical formalism. It is something which is expressed within it, and is something which is best discussed in terms of the paradoxes that quantum experiments force upon physics. In fact, the simplest and most immediately disturbing of the quantummechanical paradoxes arise out of wave-particle duality. We take the two-slit experiment and the delayed-choice experiment as examples.
Introduction The evolution of microelectronics toward reduced device sizes has proceeded to a degree that renders conventional models, approaches, and theories inapplicable. Indeed, for objects with sizes of 100 nanometers or less it is frequently the case that the length scales associated with fundamental physical processes are comparable to the geometrical size of the device; also, fundamental time scales associated with physical processes are of the order of the time parameters for nanodevice operation. Therefore, on the nanoscale the theories and models underlying modern nanoelectronics become more complicated, and rely more and more on basic science. Generally, in the nanoworld the fundamental laws of physics that govern particles and material fields differ from those that apply to familiar macroscopic phenomena such as the motion of a baseball or a train. Instead of classical mechanics, that works so well for macroscopic phenomena, the motion of particles in the nanoworld is determined by the so-called wave mechanics or quantum mechanics. An underlying principle of central importance for nanophysics is the fundamental concept that all matter , including electrons, nuclei, and electromagnetic fields, behaves as both waves and particles , that is, wave–particle duality is a basic characteristic of all matter. At first glance, wave properties and particle properties for the same physical object are hardly compatible. To understand wave–particle duality, we will briefly review, in the following two subsections, the basic properties of particles and waves known from classical physics.