Review of the Linear Optical Properties

Christopher R. Moylan

R. Loudon

The noise properties of the two main kinds of linear optical amplifier, phase-insensitive and phase-sensitive, are reviewed, with particular emphasis on their minimum-noise limits. An optical communications link is considered, in which identical sections of attenuating fiber alternate with identical linear amplifiers. The limits on the overall signal-to-noise ratios of such chains are derived. More attention is paid to the signal-to-noise ratio appropriate to phase-sensitive detection, but some results for direct detection are also given.

Thomas Schneider

Sonia Lumb, Shalini Lumb Talwar, Vinod Prasad

Abstract Laser–matter interaction is an important field of scientific research. This article discusses the response of atomic and molecular systems to laser fields and presents a review of related studies. The methodologies employed to investigate the interaction of continuous as well as pulsed lasers with atomic systems are presented. The application of laser field along with external electric and magnetic fields influence the properties of the quantum confined heterostructures. The externally applied electric and magnetic fields and confining potentials representing environmental constraints provide additional channels to control such properties. A discussion on the linear and non-linear optical properties of quantum confined systems is presented. Another experimentally viable and crucial concept which is reviewed in the present work is molecular orientation and alignment.

R. Loudon

Measurements on non-classical effects fall into two categories depending on whether the two intensities or photon counts to be correlated refer to a single light beam or to two different beams. The main experimental work in the single-beam case is on resonance fluorescence; the relevant theory is reviewed in some detail, with particular emphasis on the simpler aspects of the calculations. Alternative proposals for generating non-classical single beams by non-linear optical experiments are reviewed more briefly. A similar coverage of double-beam experiments is given, with a detailed account of the theory of non-classical correlations between the light beams generated in two-photon cascade emission, and a briefer survey of corresponding non-linear optical experiments.