First Ever Photo of Wave-Particle Duality of Light

Emily Newton

It may seem farfetched, but this is a picture of light. More specifically, this is the first photo ever taken of light as a wave and a particle!

Albert Einstein was the first to suggest that light behaves as a wave and a particle. This idea is known as “wave-particle duality of light” and this is actually what he was awarded the Nobel Prize for in 1921. Many, many experiments have tried to capture this phenomenon in a photo, but were unable to do so…until recently. On March 2, 2015, a team of scientists at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Europe performed a successful experiment involving the use of electrons and a metallic nanowire. Their findings were published in Natural Communication journal.