The use of laser pulses to alter the internal quantum structure of individual atoms and molecules has applications in quantum information processing, the coherent control of chemical reactions and in quantum-state engineering. This book presents the underlying theory of such quantum-state manipulation for researchers and graduate students. The book provides the equations, and approaches for their solution, which can be applied to complicated multilevel quantum systems. It also gives the background theory for application to isolated atoms or trapped ions, simple molecules and atoms embedded in solids. Particular attention is given to the ways in which quantum changes can be displayed graphically to help readers understand how quantum changes can be controlled.
The use of laser pulses to alter the internal quantum structure of individual atoms and molecules has applications in quantum information processing, the coherent control of chemical reactions and in quantum-state engineering. This book presents the underlying theory of such quantum-state manipulation for researchers and graduate students. The book provides the equations, and approaches for their solution, which can be applied to complicated multilevel quantum systems. It also gives the background theory for application to isolated atoms or trapped ions, simple molecules and atoms embedded in solids. Particular attention is given to the ways in which quantum changes can be displayed graphically to help readers understand how quantum changes can be controlled.
The quantum world within an atom or molecule that once attracted explorations only by academic physicists now provides fertile sustenance for chemists seeking control of chemical reactions and for engineers developing ever smaller electronic devices or tools for processing information with greater security. Whereas the first pioneers could only discover the most elementary properties – the discrete energy levels that characterize the internal structures of atoms and the radiative transitions that link these structures to our external world – it is now possible to alter that structure at will, albeit briefly. Objective This monograph presents the physical principles that describe such deliberately crafted changes, namely how single atoms or molecules (or other simple quantum systems) are affected by coherent interactions, primarily laser light – a subject that has been regarded first as a part of quantum electronics and then quantum optics but is most generally described as coherent atomic excitation [Sho90]. This physics has relevance to such basic concerns as the detection and quantitative analysis of trace amounts of chemicals, the catalysis or control of chemical reactions, the alignment of molecules, and the processing of quantum information. The physics necessarily involves elementary quantum mechanics, but it has many associations to the classical dynamics that governs macroscopic objects – waves and particles. The mathematics that quantifies the changes is that of differential equations, specifically coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs), whose parameters incorporate the controls of experimenters and whose solutions, appropriately interpreted, quantify the resulting changes.
Coherent manipulations of atoms using laser light The internal structure of a particle - an atom or other quantum system in which the excitation energies are discrete - undergoes change when exposed to pulses of near-resonant laser light. This tutorial review presents basic concepts of quantum states, of laser radiation and of the Hilbert-space statevector that provides the theoretical portrait of probability amplitudes - the tools for quantifying quantum properties not only of individual atoms and molecules but also of artificial atoms and other quantum systems. It discusses the equations of motion that describe the laser-induced changes (coherent excitation), and gives examples of laser-pulse effects, with particular emphasis on two-state and three-state adiabatic time evolution within the rotating-wave approximation. It provides pictorial descriptions of excitation based on the Bloch equations that allow visualization of two-state excitation as motion of a three-dimensional vector (the Bloch vector). Other visualization techniques allow portrayal of more elaborate systems, particularly the Hilbert-space motion of adiabatic states subject to various pulse sequences. Various more general multilevel systems receive treatment that includes degeneracies, chains and loop linkages. The concluding sections discuss techniques for creating arbitrary pre-assigned quantum states, for manipulating them into alternative coherent superpositions and for analyzing an unknown superposition. Appendices review some basic mathematical concepts and provide further details of the theoretical formalism, including photons, pulse propagation, statistical averages, analytic solutions to the equations of motion, exact solutions of periodic Hamiltonians, and population-trapping "dark" states.
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.
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.
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.
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.