Louis de Broglie is most famous for his groundbreaking theory of
wave-particle duality. In 1924, he proposed that particles, such as electrons, have both
wave-like and
particle-like properties. This was a revolutionary idea at the time because, before de Broglie, it was believed that particles and waves were entirely separate concepts.
He suggested that just like light can behave as both a wave and a particle, particles (like electrons) could also show wave-like behavior. This concept led to the
de Broglie wavelength formula, which calculates the wavelength of a moving particle.
His work laid the foundation for
quantum mechanics and was later confirmed by experiments, including the famous electron diffraction experiments. For his contributions, de Broglie won the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1929.