Understanding the interaction between light and matter at the quantum mechanical level and basic applications thereof.
Topics:
(1) introduction to open quantum systems: Wigner-Weisskopf theory of spontaneous decay, master equations, decoherence; (2) Laser cooling and trapping of atoms: Doppler cooling, Sisyphus cooling, optical and magnetic trapping, trapped ions; (3) photodetection: coherence, photon-photon correlations, homodyne measurements; (4) "Exploring the Quantum": cavity QED experiements with Rydberg atoms, "Schrödinger cat" states, parametric down conversion and Bell inequalities, ...
quantum coherence functions (4) optical tests of quantum mechanics: entangled states; Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen programme; entangled photon pairs via spontaneous parametric down-conversion; Bell¿s inequalities (5) basics of quantum information: q-bits; q-gates; q-teleportation; q-algorithms; q-cryptography (6) cooling and trapping of neutral atoms: laser-cooling; Sisyphus-cooling; magneto-optical, dipole, and magnetic traps
Quantum Optics I