This topical issue of Quantum and Semiclassical Optics contains a series of articles presented at the workshop ` Second Order Nonlinear Optics: from Fundamentals to Applications', held in l'Ecole de Physique des Houches (Haute-Savoie, France) from 22 to 26 April 1996. The recent development of new laser sources, such as diode-pumped solid-state lasers, and the availability of new highly nonlinear materials (including artificial materials based on quasi-phase-matched techniques) has induced a revival of the field of second order nonlinear optics. This research covers a broad spectrum, ranging from fundamentals (generation of nonclassical states of light, amplification without added noise, frequency division chain, etc.) to applications (spectroscopy, teledetection, metrology, communications, etc.), through the development of new light sources (coherent and tunable, pulsed or continuous wave) and of new optronic devices. The purpose of this workshop was to gather together researchers from different cultures and horizons (fundamental and applied research, industry) who contribute to the dissemination of advanced knowledge and the formation of contacts among scientists from different countries. A significant effort was made by the lecturers to give talks that could be easily understood by nonspecialists of the domain and to cover in a synthetic way the different aspects of second order nonlinear optics. The topics cover both physics and engineering aspects of the field and present an up-to-date survey of current research in second order nonlinear optics. The 72 participants from 13 countries attended 29 lectures presented by 27 lecturers over five extensive working days in an informal and fruitful way. Participants were given a chance to present their own work through 24 poster papers in two very lively sessions. The Editors would like to thank the authors for their excellent contributions to this volume. The organisers are grateful for the help of many organisations in the success of the school. The principal sponsors were CNRS, CEA, DRET, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, the European Community (EC) and THOMSON-CSF. We also wish to express our deepest gratitude to the local organising team for their unstinting efforts. Guest Editors Claude Fabre and Jean-Paul Pocholle The abstracts for the poster papers appear in the PostScript and PDF files.
This topical issue of Quantum and Semiclassical Optics contains a series of articles presented at the workshop ` Second Order Nonlinear Optics: from Fundamentals to Applications', held in l'Ecole de Physique des Houches (Haute-Savoie, France) from 22 to 26 April 1996. The recent development of new laser sources, such as diode-pumped solid-state lasers, and the availability of new highly nonlinear materials (including artificial materials based on quasi-phase-matched techniques) has induced a revival of the field of second order nonlinear optics. This research covers a broad spectrum, ranging from fundamentals (generation of nonclassical states of light, amplification without added noise, frequency division chain, etc.) to applications (spectroscopy, teledetection, metrology, communications, etc.), through the development of new light sources (coherent and tunable, pulsed or continuous wave) and of new optronic devices. The purpose of this workshop was to gather together researchers from different cultures and horizons (fundamental and applied research, industry) who contribute to the dissemination of advanced knowledge and the formation of contacts among scientists from different countries. A significant effort was made by the lecturers to give talks that could be easily understood by nonspecialists of the domain and to cover in a synthetic way the different aspects of second order nonlinear optics. The topics cover both physics and engineering aspects of the field and present an up-to-date survey of current research in second order nonlinear optics. The 72 participants from 13 countries attended 29 lectures presented by 27 lecturers over five extensive working days in an informal and fruitful way. Participants were given a chance to present their own work through 24 poster papers in two very lively sessions. The Editors would like to thank the authors for their excellent contributions to this volume. The organisers are grateful for the help of many organisations in the success of the school. The principal sponsors were CNRS, CEA, DRET, Ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche, the European Community (EC) and THOMSON-CSF. We also wish to express our deepest gratitude to the local organising team for their unstinting efforts. Guest Editors Claude Fabre and Jean-Paul Pocholle The abstracts for the poster papers appear in the PostScript and PDF files.
The idea to organize a central-european workshop on quantum optics goes back to the activity of prof. V. Buzžek (Bratislava) and prof. J. Janszky (Budapest). The first meetings were held in Budapest and Bratislava and started a tradition bringing together people working on problems related to quantum optics. Later workshops have been held at Budmerice (Slovakia), Balaton (Hungary), Olomouc and Prague (Czech republic). The already eighth central-european workshop found his way back to Prague and was organized in cooperation with the Doppler Institute and the Department of Physics of the Faculty for Nuclear Science and Physical Engineering of the Czech Technical University in Prague. The contributions of the participants focus on problems in quantum communication, quantum information, quantum state reconstruction, atom optics and nonlinear quantum optics. The success of the workshop was enabled by the kind cooperation of all the participants during the conference. The present collection of contributions gives a good review of topics presented. We hope that the present issue will be able to transfer the constructive and stimulating atmosphere of the workshop to the readership. I would like to thank the editor prof. D. Lüst and co-editor prof. W. P. Schleich for opening up the possibility to publish the proceedings of the workshop in the Fortschritte der Physik. It surely helps to enlarge the readership of the proceedings and promotes the idea of the central-european workshop among colleagues around the world.
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
The series of Central European Workshops on Quantum Optics looks back on a successful annual sequence of ten meetings, previously held at locations in Slovakia, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and most recently in Germany. The goal to provide a forum for quantum optics specialists from both Central Europe and elsewhere has always been accompanied by an attempt to provide a small-sized and affordable meeting. Together with the contributions of the participants and the many discussion during the meetings, the special flair of this series of Workshops has become well established. This special issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics is devoted to the tenth anniversary Workshop, held during 4–7th April 2003 at Rostock-Warnemünde, Germany, on the coast of the Baltic Sea. It contains selected articles by the participants of the Workshop, who came not only from Central Europe but also from other parts of the world. Their contributions cover a variety of subjects, reflecting the fact that, stimulated by the progress of experimental techniques, quantum optics has become a rapidly growing field of research.
This Special Issue of Journal of Optics B: Quantum and Semiclassical Optics brings together the contributions of various researchers working on theoretical and experimental aspects of cold quantum gases. Different aspects of atom optics, matter wave interferometry, laser manipulation of atoms and molecules, and production of very cold and degenerate gases are presented. The variety of subjects demonstrates the steadily expanding role associated with this research area. The topics discussed in this issue, extending from basic physics to applications of atom optics and of cold atomic samples, include: •Bose--Einstein condensation •Fermi degenerate gases •Characterization and manipulation of quantum gases •Coherent and nonlinear cold matter wave optics •New schemes for laser cooling •Coherent cold molecular gases •Ultra-precise atomic clocks •Applications of cold quantum gases to metrology and spectroscopy •Applications of cold quantum gases to quantum computing •Nanoprobes and nanolithography. This special issue is published in connection with the 7th International Workshop on Atom Optics and Interferometry, held in Lunteren, The Netherlands, from 28 September to 2 October 2002. This was the last in a series of Workshops organized with the support of the European Community that have greatly contributed to progress in this area. The scientific part of the Workshop was managed by A Hemmerich, W Hogervorst, W Vassen and J T M Walraven, with input from members of the International Programme Committee who are listed below. The practical aspects of the organization were ably handled by Petra de Gijsel from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. The Workshop was funded by the European Science Foundation (programme BEC2000+), the European Networks 'Cold Quantum Gases (CQG)', coordinated by E Arimondo, and 'Cold Atoms and Ultraprecise Atomic Clocks (CAUAC)', coordinated by J Henningsen, by the German Physical Society (DFG), by the Dutch Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) and by the Dutch Gelderland province. We thank all these sponsors and the members of the International Programme Committee for making the Workshop such a success. At this point we take the opportunity to express our gratitude to both authors and reviewers, for their efforts in preparing and ensuring the high quality of the papers in this special issue. Wim Vassen Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam Andreas Hemmerich Universität Hamburg Ennio Arimondo Università di Pisa Guest Editors International Programme Committee A Aspect Orsay, France E Cornell Boulder, USA W Ertmer Hannover, Germany T W Haensch Munich, Germany A Hemmerich Hamburg, Germany W Hogervorst Amsterdam, The Netherlands D Kleppner Cambridge, USA C Salomon Paris, France G V Shlyapnikov Amsterdam, Paris, Moscow S Stringari Trento, Italy W Vassen Amsterdam, The Netherlands J T M Walraven Amsterdam, The Netherlands
FOREWORD by N. Bloembergen NONLINEAR OPTICS Channeling of atoms in a standing laser light wave by V.I. Balykin et al. Optical nonlinearities and the Kerr effect in phaseonium by U. Rathe et al. Spectroscopic studies in the far ultraviolet (80-200nm) using nonlinear tunable sources by B.P. Stoicheff CARS in plasma physics by M. Lefebvre et al. Velocity distribution of electrons for tunnel ionization by a light field with polar asymmetry by N.B. Baranova and B. Ya Zel'dovich NONLINEAR OPTICS IN CONDENSED MEDIA Hot carriers in semiconductors studied via picosecond optical nonlinearities in the infrared by T. Elsasser and W. Kaiser Non-local time-resolved spectroscopy-tracking of polariton pulses in crystals by Ch Flytzanis et al. Self trapping of optical beams in photorefractive media by M. Segev et al. Solitons in quantum nonlinear optics by R.Y. Chiao et al. Femtosecond dynamics of third-order nonlinearities in polythiophenes by A Cybo-Ottone et al. NEW DEVICES AND TECHNOLOGY Nonlinear generation of sub-psec pulses of THz electromagnetic radiation by optoelectronics-applications to time-domain spectroscopy by D. Grischkowsky Novel nonlinear optical techniques for studying chiral molecules of biological importance by N.I. Koroteev Coupled nonlinear cavities: new avenues to ultrashort pulses by F. Mitschke et al. Transverse rotating waves in nonlinear optical systems with spatial and temporal delay by N.G. Iroshnikov and M.A. Vorontsov The effect of intraspectral harmonics correlation of broad-band fields on the excitation of quantum resonance systems by A.M. Bonch-Bruevich and S.B. Przhibelskii Injection-locked femtosecond parametric oscillators in LBO crystals by V.M. Gordienko et al. INDEX
This special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical appears on the occasion of the 5th International Symposium on Quantum Theory and Symmetries (QTS5), held in Valladolid, Spain, from 22–28 July 2007. This is the fith in a series of conferences previously held in Goslar (Germany) 1999, QTS1; Cracow (Poland) 2001, QTS2; Cincinnati (USA) 2003, QTS3; and Varna (Bulgaria) 2005, QTS4. The QTS5 symposium gathered 181 participants from 39 countries working in different fields of theoretical physics. The spirit of the QTS conference series is to join researchers in a wide variety of topics in theoretical physics, as a way of making accessible recent results and the new lines of different fields. This is based on the feeling that it is good for a physicist to have a general overview as well as expertise in his/her own field. There are many other conferences devoted to specific topics, which are of interest to gain deeper insight in many technical aspects and that are quite suitable for discussions due to their small size. However, we believe that general conferences like this are interesting and worth keeping. We like the talks, in both plenary and parallel sessions, which are devoted to specific topics, to be prepared so as to be accessible to any researcher in any branch of theoretical physics. We think that this objective is compatible with rigour and high standards. As is well known, similar methods and techniques can be useful for many problems in different fields. We hope that this has been appreciated during the sessions of the QTS5 conference. The QTS5 conference offered the following list of topics: 1. Symmetries in string theory, quantum gravity and related topics 2. Symmetries in quantum field theories, conformal and related field theories, lattice and noncommutative theories, gauge theories 3.Quantum computing, information and control 4. Foundations of quantum theory 5. Quantum optics, coherent states, Wigner functions 6. Dynamical and integrable systems 7. Symmetries in condensed matter and statistical physics 8. Symmetries in particle physics, nuclear, atomic and molecular physics 9. Nonlinear quantum mechanics 10. Time asymmetric quantum mechanics 11. SUSY quantum mechanics, PT symmetries and pseudo-Hamiltonians 12. Mathematical methods for symmetries and quantum theories 13. Symmetries in chemistry, biology and other sciences Papers accepted for publication in this issue aim to provide a survey of the state of the art in different fields and contain contributions from plenary speakers. In addition, the issue contains contributions from other participants and it has also been open to other authors whose work fits into the topics of the conference. In any case, all the contributions have been refereed according to the high standards of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical . We are much indebted to several institutions; without their support the organization of the QTS5 symposium would not have been possible. In this respect we acknowledge the Ministerio de Educación of Spain and Junta de Castilla y León for general financial support; to Fundación Universidades de Castilla y León for a number of grants to young researchers who otherwise would not have attended the conference; also to the European Physical Society that provided a number of grants for eastern countries, and to the University of Valladolid where the event took place. We thank IOP Publishing and the staff of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical for the publication of this special issue. In addition, we want to express our gratitude to other members of the Local Organizing Committe of QTS5, who are not Editors of this special issue: Oscar Arratia, Juan A Calzada and Fernando Gómez. Finally, we would like to thank all the participants in the QTS5 conference for their presence, contributions, and for the good atmosphere achieved during their stay. We hope that the experience of spending these days in Valladolid has been most fruitful for all of them.