Measurements of our fundamental scaling parameters (e.g., R"", a, IIle/mp) as well as tests of our basic theories of matter and radiation are frequently obtained from high resolution spectroscopic measurements on atomic systems.The new and evolving technologies of laser spectroscopy, laser cooling and trapping of atoms as well as squeezed states will have a dramatic impact on this area of metrology.While these topics have received a great deal of attention in their own right, there has not been a forum in which their impact on the field of fundamental measurements has been specifically addressed.For this reason, the National Bureau of Standards hosted a workshop on "Fundamental Measurements on Optically Prepared Atoms" on September 29-30, 1986.The workshop was divided into four half-day sessions.The first dealt with atomic states and structural parameters.It was highlighted by talks involving the quantum mechanical aspects of the atom-photon interaction.The exchange of photons between atoms and the light field were treated in a way that illustrated phenomena such as anti-bunching, squeezed states and optical bistability.Similarly, the interaction of a single atom with several resonant fields was even shown to allow observation of the internal state of the atom in real time (observation of "quantum jumps").The second session dealt mainly with the kinetic state or velocity of atoms.Demonstration of highly efficient new
Measurements of our fundamental scaling parameters (e.g., R"", a, IIle/mp) as well as tests of our basic theories of matter and radiation are frequently obtained from high resolution spectroscopic measurements on atomic systems.The new and evolving technologies of laser spectroscopy, laser cooling and trapping of atoms as well as squeezed states will have a dramatic impact on this area of metrology.While these topics have received a great deal of attention in their own right, there has not been a forum in which their impact on the field of fundamental measurements has been specifically addressed.For this reason, the National Bureau of Standards hosted a workshop on "Fundamental Measurements on Optically Prepared Atoms" on September 29-30, 1986.The workshop was divided into four half-day sessions.The first dealt with atomic states and structural parameters.It was highlighted by talks involving the quantum mechanical aspects of the atom-photon interaction.The exchange of photons between atoms and the light field were treated in a way that illustrated phenomena such as anti-bunching, squeezed states and optical bistability.Similarly, the interaction of a single atom with several resonant fields was even shown to allow observation of the internal state of the atom in real time (observation of "quantum jumps").The second session dealt mainly with the kinetic state or velocity of atoms.Demonstration of highly efficient new
This text includes all the recent advances in the field of laser spectroscopy. Major results span from the control of matter by electromagnetic fields (trapping and coding) to high precision measurements on simple atomic systems and to quantum optics with single atoms. It includes a report of the Bose-Einstein condensation achieved by laser-cooling of rubidium atoms. Achievements in the technology of tunable sources, in particular of miniaturized solid state devices, are also reported. Most recent advances in molecular spectroscopy are illustrated with emphasis on cooled spectra, clusters and high accuracy frequency references. Topics such as atomic interferometry and microcavity quantum optics are also covered.
The field of quantum optics has progressed rapidly in the last twenty five years with the advent of the laser. Over much of this period the phenomena studied could be described adequately by semiclassical treatments. Quite recently however, there has been a revival of interest in genuinely quantum mechanical effects. The Malvern Symposium of December 1985 brought together world experts for a meeting which concentrated largely on these quantum effects. The presentations in this unique meeting combine review material with the very latest results and so will be of value to students of quantum optics and measurement theory at all levels. The first articles cover the exciting topic of the generation of squeezed states of light in the laboratory, and their possible uses. Experimental success has been long sought and very recently attained. The reader will find presented the state of the art in this field. Next to lasing itself, optical bistability has been the most widely studied phenomenon in quantum optics, largely for its technological promise. However, it also provides a fundamental system to study quuantum effects. Recent theoretical studies of optical bistability with small numbers of atoms are surveyed. In such situations quantum features such as antibunching become significant, and the articles in this volume should be a guide to those venturing into this challenging area. In other articles discussions of fluctuations from other noise sources and instabilities in optical bistabilty are presented in a clear and interesting way. Perhaps the least classical state on quantum optics is that describing a single photon. Recent experiments which produce such states are reviewed. A theoretical review of the photon together with some new material is given which delves deeply into relativistic quantum field theory in order to describe the concept of weakly localised photon states. The material here is very rarely presented in the context of quantum optics. The history of the theory of the quantum fluctuations in a laser is then reviewed. An off-shoot of this theory is the study of quantum chaos in dissipative systems and recent results in this new area are given in a succeeding article. There are further stimulating articles on Rydberg atom systems and quantum electrodynamics. The volume ends with an entertaining and incisive study of quantum measurement problems, such as the Schrodinger cat papadox, using concepts and measuring devices found in quantum optics.other_titles
C o m p o u n d s The Summer School on Quantum Optics, the last of which was organized by J. Held, J. Czub and M. Gil of the Universi ty of Gdansk, at Cetniewo, Poland from 1-8 September 1981 has become a traditional event for young physicists from eastern and western European countries to discuss recent developments in their fields and to keep in contact.At Cetniewo, about 80 students and scientists from seven coun tries met at the well-appointed sports train ing centre on the Baltic sea.Three main subjects had been chosen and there were presented by lectures at sessions covering respectively experimental and theoretical aspects.(1) The quantum theory of electromagnetic fields and their interaction with atoms and molecules were highlighted in a series of lectures which included light-induced collisional energy transfer and changes in ato mic eigenstates by off-resonant monochro matic light.It was shown, that the emis sion spectrum of a resonant-excited two level system contains sidebands at the atomic Rabi-frequency of the laser field.Coherence and saturation phenomena in photoionisation and different aspects of optical bistability were also treated.(2) Recent experimental developments in quantum optics and atomic physics gave special emphasis to the spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms.New results of double resonance experiments on high levels in in dium served as an example to demonstrate the remarkably good agreement between theory and experiment.The use of ther mionic diodes in experiments on lithium have allowed the determination of ground state isotope shifts, which had not been detected in Rydberg D-states.The possibi lity of using sensitive Rydberg-spectroscopy for the detection of infrared photons was discussed.Another interesting subject was trapped-ion spectroscopy.Very high precision experiments in different laborato ries on hyperfine splittings have successful ly demonstrated ion cooling, which was discussed in detail at the school.This ses sion was completed by a lecture about X-ray polarisation in atomic collisions.(3) The third session covered reactive colli sions including the basis and recent results in chemiluminescence, chemical lasers, in vestigations of collisional energy transfer in vibrationally excited molecules, reactive formation of molecules in collisions and molecular beam scattering from solid sur faces.
The Summer School on Quantum Optics, the last of which was organized by J. Held, J. Czub and M. Gil of the Universi ty of Gdansk, at Cetniewo, Poland from 1-8 September 1981 has become a traditional event for young physicists from eastern and western European countries to discuss recent developments in their fields and to keep in contact.At Cetniewo, about 80 students and scientists from seven coun tries met at the well-appointed sports train ing centre on the Baltic sea.Three main subjects had been chosen and there were presented by lectures at sessions covering respectively experimental and theoretical aspects.(1) The quantum theory of electromagnetic fields and their interaction with atoms and molecules were highlighted in a series of lectures which included light-induced collisional energy transfer and changes in ato mic eigenstates by off-resonant monochro matic light.It was shown, that the emis sion spectrum of a resonant-excited two level system contains sidebands at the atomic Rabi-frequency of the laser field.Coherence and saturation phenomena in photoionisation and different aspects of optical bistability were also treated.(2) Recent experimental developments in quantum optics and atomic physics gave special emphasis to the spectroscopy of Rydberg atoms.New results of double resonance experiments on high levels in in dium served as an example to demonstrate the remarkably good agreement between theory and experiment.The use of ther mionic diodes in experiments on lithium have allowed the determination of ground state isotope shifts, which had not been detected in Rydberg D-states.The possibi lity of using sensitive Rydberg-spectroscopy for the detection of infrared photons was discussed.Another interesting subject was trapped-ion spectroscopy.Very high precision experiments in different laborato ries on hyperfine splittings have successful ly demonstrated ion cooling, which was discussed in detail at the school.This ses sion was completed by a lecture about X-ray polarisation in atomic collisions.(3) The third session covered reactive colli sions including the basis and recent results in chemiluminescence, chemical lasers, in vestigations of collisional energy transfer in vibrationally excited molecules, reactive formation of molecules in collisions and molecular beam scattering from solid sur faces.
This established textbook provides an accessible but comprehensive introduction to the quantum nature of light and its interaction with matter. The field of quantum optics is covered with clarity and depth, from the underlying theoretical framework of field quantization, atom–field interactions, and quantum coherence theory, to important and modern applications at the forefront of current research such as quantum interferometry, squeezed light, quantum entanglement, cavity quantum electrodynamics, laser-cooled trapped ions, and quantum information processing. The text is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and would be an ideal main text for a course on quantum optics. This long-awaited second edition builds upon the success of the first edition, including many new developments in the field, particularly in the area of quantum state engineering. Additional homework problems have been added, and content from the first edition has been updated and clarified throughout.
Introduction The quantum theory of atoms and molecules had its origin in the famous 1913 paper of Bohr [186] in which he suggested that the interaction of radiation and atoms occurred with the transition of an atom from one stationary internal state to another, accompanied by the emission or absorption of radiation of a frequency determined by the energy difference between these states. These transitions came to be known as ‘quantum jumps’. Since all experiments until the late 1970s used to be carried out with large ensembles of atoms and molecules, these jumps were masked and could not be directly observed; they were only inferred from spectroscopic data. In fact, with the advent of quantum mechanics they eventually came to be regarded as artefacts of Bohr's simple-minded semi-classical model. But with the availability of coherent light sources and single ions prepared in ion traps [187], [188], and optically cooled [189], [190], the issue has been reopened with the experimental demonstration of quantum jumps in single ions [191], [192], [193]. These experiments have also opened up the contentious issue of wave function collapse or reduction on measurement, as they can be regarded as making collapse visible on the oscilloscope screen [191]. Evidence of the discrete nature of quantum transitions in a single quantum system had been accumulating from the observation of photon anti-bunching in single-atom resonance fluorescence [194], the tunneling of single electrons in metal–oxide-–semiconductor junctions [195] and spin-flips of individual electrons in a Penning trap [196].