
Young's double-slit experiment
Coherent light or single particles pass through two narrow slits and are recorded on a screen. Users observe the interference pattern in the wave picture, then follow the gradual formation of the same pattern from individual photon or electron impacts, and examine how a which-path detector makes the interference disappear.
Learning objectives
- Relate fringe spacing to wavelength, slit separation and screen distance
- Observe how slit width shapes the diffraction envelope and suppresses orders
- Watch the interference pattern build up from single-particle impacts
- Examine how measuring the particle's path destroys interference
- Governing relation
- Experiment modes
- Wave, single photon and single electron



