De Broglie hypothesis : Louis de Broglie (1892-1987), French physicist, proposed (in 1924) that the wave-particle duality may not be unique to light but a universal characteristic of nature, so that a particle of matter in motion also has a wave or periodicity associated with it which becomes evident when the magnitude of Planck’s constant h cannot be ignored.

De Broglie equation : A particle of mass m moving with a speed v should under suitable experimental conditions exhibit the characteristics of a wave of wavelength

λ = \(\cfrac h{mv}\) = \(\cfrac h{p}\)

where p = mv = momentum of the particle. The relation λ = h/p is called the de Broglie equation, and the wavelength λ associated with a particle momentum is called its de Broglie wavelength. The corresponding waves are termed as matter waves or de Broglie waves or Schrodinger waves.

[Note: This hypothesis was revolutionary at that time and accepted by others because Einstein supported it. Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961), Austrian physicist, formulated a wave equation for matter waves.]