Is cuid lárnach de theoiric na meicnice chandamach iad tonnta damhnachaí, mar shampla de dhéacht toinne is cáithnín. Taispeánann gach damhna iompar cosúil le tonn. Mar shampla, is féidir leictreonléas a díraonadh díreach cosúil le tonn solais nó tonn uisce. I bhformhór na gcásanna, áfach, tá an tonnfhad róbheag le tionchar praiticiúil a bheith aige ar ghníomhaíochtaí ó lá go lá.

Mhol an fisiceoir Francach Louis de Broglie an coincheap go n-iompraíonn damhna mar a bheadh tonn ann sa bhliain 1924. Tugtar hipitéis de Broglie air freisin . ^[1] Tugtar tonnta de Broglie ar thonnta an damhna.

Is é tonnfhad de Broglie an tonnfhad, λ, a bhaineann le cáithnín ollmhór (ie, cáithnín le mais, seachas cáithnín gan mhais) agus tá baint aige lena mhóiminteam, p, trí tairiseach Planck, h :

${\displaystyle \lambda ={\frac {h}{p))={\frac {h}{mv)).}$

• L. de Broglie, Recherches sur la théorie des quanta (Researches on the quantum theory), Thesis (Paris), 1924; L. de Broglie, Ann. Phys. (Paris) 3, 22 (1925). English translation by A.F. Kracklauer.
• Broglie, Louis de, The wave nature of the electron Nobel Lecture, 12, 1929
• Tipler, Paul A. and Ralph A. Llewellyn (2003). Modern Physics. 4th ed. New York; W. H. Freeman and Co. ISBN 0-7167-4345-0. pp. 203–4, 222–3, 236.
• Zumdahl, Steven S. (2005). "Chemical Principles". Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 
• An extensive review article "Optics and interferometry with atoms and molecules" appeared in July 2009: https://web.archive.org/web/20110719220930/http://www.atomwave.org/rmparticle/RMPLAO.pdf.
• "Scientific Papers Presented to Max Born on his retirement from the Tait Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh", 1953 (Oliver and Boyd)

• Tonnta de Broglie. http://www.sixtysymbols.com/videos/debroglie.htm