The wave-particle duality of electrons was first proposed by de Broglie in 1923. He bombarded a single crystal with an electron beam and obtained the same transmission diffraction pattern as von Laue's X-ray bombardment of a single crystal. From this, he proposed that electrons themselves possess wave properties. Subsequently, he extended this view to the fact that everything possesses wave-particle duality, even including neutral matter. This paper argues that when an electron beam bombards a single crystal, X-rays are generated first, and the diffraction pattern is subsequently formed. It is this difference that led de Broglie to introduce a series of seemingly illogical concepts, such as electron wave packets and neutral matter waves. Modern quantum mechanics is primarily based on de Broglie's theory, particularly Schrödinger's atomic structure model, which describes electrons as standing waves that form electron clouds within atoms, which appear according to probability. This article, however, argues that electron beams are particle-like, not wave-like, and that X-rays produced by electron beams are wave-like, not particle-like. These are two different concepts. Neutral atoms and molecules do not exhibit matter waves.

The attached TEM images were from an experiment I did previously. Whether transmission or diffraction, the two images should be formed by X-rays. Ruska, the TEM inventor, once pointed out that it is best to allow electrons to arrive at the sample synchronously, which will improve the resolution. This is beneficial for X-rays to be in phase, but it doesn't help with electron beam imaging. Currently, in an effort to improve TEM resolution, researchers are continuously increasing the accelerating voltage. This may be a misguided direction. I spoke with Professor Frank about this. He visited University of Freiburg in June 2024. He is a 1987 Nobel laureate in Chemistry and also uses TEM to analyze their work. His collaborating TEM production unit, Cornell University, was preparing to increase the voltage from 200 kV to 600 kV. I told him that this would only make it easier to burn up the samples. I suggested that defocusing and widening the aperture should be used to increase the ratio of the X-rays. He accepted this view and said that many of their images were actually defocused.

I also talked to him about how even if we could achieve atomic resolution, we still wouldn't be able to explain the properties. I believe that science urgently needs to overcome a hurdle: studying the motion of electrons within molecules. For example, covalent bonds, double bonds, lone pairs of electrons, free radicals, and their superimposed magnetic fields, etc.