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Physics Today

Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities, and Photons

Pierre Meystre

Published Aug 1, 2007• 5 citations
Publisher

Abstract

  1. Unveiling the quantum 2. Strangeness and power of the quantum 3. Of spins and springs 4. The environment is watching 5. Photons in a box 6. Seeing light in subtle ways 7. Taming Schrodinger's cats 8. Atoms in a box 9. Entangling matter waves Appendix: Representation of quantum states in phase space
DOI
10.1063/1.2774103

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The counter-intuitive aspects of quantum physics have been illustrated for some time by thought experiments, from Einstein's photon box to Schrödinger's cat. These experiments have now become real, with single particles — electrons, atoms or photons — directly unveiling the weird features of the quantum. State superpositions, entanglement and complementarity define a novel quantum logic that can be harnessed for information processing, raising great hopes for applications. This book describes a class of such thought experiments made real. Juggling with atoms and photons confined in cavities, ions or cold atoms in traps, provides an incentive to shed a new light on the basic concepts of quantum physics. Measurement processes and decoherence at the quantum-classical boundary are highlighted.
PART I: INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND 1. Introduction 2. Classical optics 3. Quantum mechanics 4. Radiative transitions in atoms PART II: PHOTONS 5. Photon statistics 6. Photon antibunching 7. Coherent states and squeezed light 8. Photon number states PART III: ATOM-PHOTON INTERACTIONS 9. Resonant light-atom interactions 10. Atoms in cavities 11. Cold atoms PART IV: QUANTUM INFORMATION PROCESSING 12. Quantum cryptography 13. Quantum computing 14. Entangled states and quantum teleportation APPENDICES A. Poisson statistics B. Parametric amplification C. The density of states D. Low dimensional semiconductor structures E. Nuclear magnetic resonance F. Bose-Einstein condensation
This chapter is devoted to the physics of cavity quantum electrodynamics (CQED) cats. After a brief reminder about the Schrödinger cat problem in quantum optics, it describes how a single atom interacting with a field made of many photons can leave its quantum imprint on this field, bringing it into a superposition of states with distinct classical attributes. It describes the preparation and detection of these ‘Schrödinger cat’ states. It presents simple decoherence models, which account for their extreme fragility. It describes experimental studies of decoherence, which constitute direct explorations of the quantum-classical boundary. It discusses limitations to the size of these cat states and ways to protect them efficiently against decoherence. Finally, the chapter describes proposals to generate and study non-local cats, superpositions of field states delocalised in two cavities.
Quantum physics allows for entanglement between microscopic and macroscopic objects, described by discrete and continuous variables, respectively. As in Schrödinger's famous cat gedanken experiment, a box enclosing the objects can keep the entanglement alive. For applications in quantum information processing, however, it is essential to access the objects and manipulate them with suitable quantum tools. Here we reach this goal and deterministically generate entangled light-matter states by reflecting a coherent light pulse with up to four photons on average from an optical cavity containing one atom. The quantum light propagates freely and reaches a remote receiver for quantum state tomography. We produce a plethora of quantum states and observe negative-valued Wigner functions, a characteristic sign of non-classicality. As a first application, we demonstrate a quantum-logic gate between an atom and a light pulse, with the photonic qubit encoded in the phase of the light field.