Compton Wavelength Calculator

What Is the Compton Wavelength?

The Compton wavelength of a particle is the wavelength of a photon whose energy equals the particle's rest energy. It marks the scale where quantum field effects become important and sets a fundamental limit on how precisely a particle's position can be measured without pair creation.

Compton Wavelength Formula

The Compton wavelength is:

where:

• \(h = 6.626 \times 10^{-34}\,\text{J·s}\) — Planck constant
• \(m\) — rest mass of the particle (kg)
• \(c = 2.998 \times 10^8\,\text{m/s}\) — speed of light

The equivalent rest energy is:

For an electron, \(\lambda_c \approx 2.43\,\text{pm}\). For a proton, \(\lambda_c \approx 1.32 \times 10^{-3}\,\text{pm}\).