The key difference between electromagnetic wave and matter wave is that the electromagnetic waves have electric and magnetic fields associated with them, whereas the matter waves don’t have any associated electric or magnetic field.
Wave is a disturbance of a field in which a physical attribute oscillates repeatedly at each point or propagates from each point to neighbouring points. Electromagnetic waves and matter waves are two types of such waves. Moreover, all matter can behave as a wave. And, this concept was first proposed by Louis De Broglie, which led to naming these waves as “Broglie waves” as well.
CONTENTS
1. Overview and Key Difference
2. What is Electromagnetic Wave
3. What is Matter Wave
4. Side by Side Comparison – Electromagnetic Wave vs Matter Wave in Tabular Form
5. Summary
What is Electromagnetic Wave?
An electromagnetic wave is a type of wave that travels through space, carrying electromagnetic radiant energy. These waves propagate at the speed of light in a vacuum. Types of electromagnetic waves include radio waves, microwaves, infrared rays, visible light, UV rays, etc. Furthermore, we can characterize these electromagnetic waves using wavelength, frequency or energy.
Figure 01: An Electromagnetic Wave Showing the Perpendicular Electric and Magnetic Fields
These electromagnetic waves have both electric and magnetic components. Here, we can see the oscillation of electric and magnetic fields being perpendicular to each other and oscillates in the direction of the propagation of the wave.
Moreover, an electromagnetic wave consists of quanta called “photons”. A photon has no mass but has a relativistic mass; thus, the gravity can affect these photons just like normal matter. When we provide energy to an atom, the electrons can move to high energy levels, but since the higher energy state is unstable, the electrons fall back to lower energy states, releasing photons. Hence, this incident can produce electromagnetic radiation. Using this principle, we can obtain emission spectra for chemical elements and determine the energy levels of those atoms.
What is Matter Wave?
Matter waves are the waves that consist of particles. However, these waves are not associated with electric and magnetic fields. Unlike electromagnetic waves, these matter waves consist of particles (which has a mass and a volume). Thus, all matter can behave as a wave.
Figure 02: Demonstration of a Matter Wave in the Diffraction of Electrons
The matter wave concept was first proposed by Louis De Broglie, which led to naming these waves as “Broglie waves” as well.
What is the Difference Between Electromagnetic Wave and Matter Wave?
Electromagnetic waves are a type of wave that travels through space, carrying electromagnetic radiant energy while matter waves are the waves that consist of particles. So, the key difference between electromagnetic wave and matter wave is that electromagnetic waves have electric and magnetic fields associated with them, whereas matter waves don’t have any associated electric or magnetic field.
Moreover, as another important difference between electromagnetic wave and matter wave, we can say that electromagnetic wave consists of photons (which have no mass or volume), while matter wave contains particles (which have mass and volume).
The below info-graphic shows more comparisons related to the difference between electromagnetic wave and matter wave.
Summary – Electromagnetic Wave vs Matter Wave
Electromagnetic waves and matter waves are different from each other in several ways. The key difference between electromagnetic wave and matter wave is that electromagnetic waves have electric and magnetic fields associated with them (which has led to name these wave as such), whereas matter waves don’t have any associated electric or magnetic field.
Reference:
1. Helmenstine, Anne Marie. “Electromagnetic Radiation Definition.” ThoughtCo, Jan. 27, 2019, Available here.
Image Courtesy:
1. “Onde electromagnetique” By SuperManu – Self, based on Image:Onde electromagnetique.png (CC BY-SA 3.0) via Commons Wikimedia
2. “Wave-particle duality” By Thierry Dugnolle – Own work (CC0) via Commons Wikimedia