The double slit experiment is an example of electrons behaving as waves.
I know that this experiment has been performed with only single electrons being propelled at the slits, and that the result of this has still been wave behavior. This is most often explained by stating that the electrons travel through both slits.
Has this experiment been performed in a vacuum? Can the wave behavior possibly be explained by a single electron creating a wave front made of multiple electrons?
To my knowledge, all experiments involving electron beam are performed under vacuum to avoid losses due to collisions with background molecules.
It is for instance the case of the celebrated double slit experiment performed with electrons by Akira Tonomura et al in 1987 (http://aapt.scitation.org/doi/10.1119/1.16104).
The experiments are under vacuum as it is not possible to manipulate single electrons in non-vacuum, as Penangol has answered.
The answer to
Can the wave behavior possibly be explained by a single electron creating a wave front made of multiple electrons?
is NO, due to charge and electron number conservation.
In general statements like :
This is most often explained by stating that the electrons travel through both slits.
Are imposing classical framework logic to a quantum mechanical phenomenon. Quantum mechanical phenomena can only be described by probabilities of interaction, in the case of the double slit, the probability of passing through one or another slit. Probabilities are accumulated measurements which show the interference. The individual electron on the screen is whole, within the impact point.
The wave behavior is produced by a single electron and a vacuum does not affect it. In my opinion I believe the accelerated electron produces synchrotron radiation (photons) that radiate spherically through both slits. This could guide the electron like a pilot wave.
