Among the audacious proposals in the evolution of natural philosophy, Louis de Broglie's (1892–1987) claim in 1923 that atoms possess a wave-property sits at top rank. Substantial matter had from ancient times been ascribed to particles like those we encounter everyday. While there was always doubt whether light is material or a disturbance in a medium (see ► wave-particle duality) there had never been much doubt about matter. A noteworthy, late nineteenth century exception in the wake of Maxwellian success in field theory came to be called “the electromagnetic world-view,” based on Kantian idealism, that described ponderable matter as secondary properties of the primary æther.
However, Albert Einstein's (1879–1955) tri-partite recasting of matter, light, and time in 1905 gave a molecular explanation in accord with that of Jean Perrin (1870– 1942) to long-observed ► Brownian motion, and atoms prevailed. In the 1920s, practical concerns of physicists in France led to de Broglie's recognition of a paradox, particularly in the domain of ► x-rays, when he tried to bring coherence to both new theories: of the quantum and of relativity.
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Wheaton, B.R. (2009). Matter Waves. In: Greenberger, D., Hentschel, K., Weinert, F. (eds) Compendium of Quantum Physics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-70626-7_115
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