De Broglie believed that matter had dual characteristics of particles as well as waves but it was generally believed that only waves can exhibit the characteristics like diffraction, reflection and rarefaction as De Broglie did not have any experimental evidence to support the hypothesis. In 1927, Davisson and Germer conducted experiments that showed that the electrons displayed diffraction patterns. This led De Broglie to conclude that diffraction proved that even matter exhibits the wave like patterns as well. De Broglie developed wave equation that helped to measure the wave characteristics of matter. De Broglie’s hypothesis was proved after the Davisson and Germer experiment and the dual nature of matter was confirmed.
