Frontiers In Quantum Optics

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 International Conference on Quantum Optics and Laser Physics was held at the Hong Kong Baptist University from January 3 to January 6, 1997, to discuss exciting developments in quantum optics. The international character of the conference was manifested by the fact that scientists from over 15 countries participated and lectured at the conference. There were two plenary lectures delivered by Nobel laureates Willis Lamb, Jr. and Chin-Ning Yang. In addition, there were 21 invited lectures, 35 contributed oral papers, and 34 poster presentations. This volume contains many of the papers presented at the conference.

Since the advent of the laser about 40 years ago, the fields of laser physics and quantum optics have evolved into a major disciplines. The early studies included optical coherence theory and semiclassical and quantum mechanical theories of the laser. More recently many new and interesting effects have been predicted. These include the role of coherent atomic effects in lasing without inversion and electromagnetically induced transparency, atom optics, laser cooling and trapping, teleportation, the single-atom micromaser and its role in quantum measurement theory, to name a few. The International Conference on Laser Physics and Quantum Optics was held in Shanghai, China, from August 25 to August 28,1999, to discuss these and many other exciting developments in laser physics and quantum optics. The international character of the conference was manifested by the fact that scientists from over 13 countries participated and lectured at the conference. There were four keynote lectures delivered by Nobel laureate Willis Lamb, Jr., Profs. H. Walther, A.E. Siegman,and M.O. Scully. In addition, there were 34 invited lectures, 27 contributed oral presentations, and 59 poster papers. We are grateful to all the participants of the conference and the contributors of this volume.

This new book examines new research in the exploding field of quantum physics. The forefront of contemporary advances in physics lies in the submicroscopic regime, whether it be in atomic, nuclear, condensed-matter, plasma, or particle physics, or in quantum optics, or even in the study of stellar structure. All are based upon quantum theory (i.e., quantum mechanics and quantum field theory) and relativity, which together form the theoretical foundations of modern physics. Many physical quantities whose classical counterparts vary continuously over a range of possible values are in quantum theory constrained to have discontinuous, or discrete, values. The intrinsically deterministic character of classical physics is replaced in quantum theory by intrinsic uncertainty. According to quantum theory, electromagnetic radiation does not always consist of continuous waves; instead it must be viewed under some circumstances as a collection of particle-like photons, the energy and momentum of each being directly proportional to its frequency (or inversely proportional to its wavelength, the photons still possessing some wavelike characteristics).

This book provides a cutting-edge research overview on the latest developments in the field of Optics and Photonics. All chapters are authored by the pioneers in their field and will cover the developments in Quantum Photonics, Optical properties of 2D Materials, Optical Sensors, Organic Opto-electronics, Nanophotonics, Metamaterials, Plasmonics, Quantum Cascade lasers, LEDs, Biophotonics and biomedical photonics and spectroscopy.

Quantum Computing is an ever-increasing field of interest both from a conceptual and applied standpoint. Quantum Computing, belonging to the so called "Quantum Information Science", is founded on the principles of Quantum Mechanics and Information Science. Quantum Mechanics has radically changed our vision and understanding of the physical reality and has had also an enormous technological and societal impact. On the other hand, the developing of Information Theory, including computer science and communications theory, made possible the information "revolution" which had a deep impact on our everyday life. Quantum Computing then relates to the possibility to represent, process and manipulate information by using the principles of quantum mechanics. Apart the theoretical importance of quantum computing to further understand the quantum mechanical behavior of physical systems and the physical foundation of information itself at the most elementary level, probably the most interesting feature of Quantum Computing is related to the possibility to design and realize an actual quantum computer which processes information in the form of quantum-bits or qubits. The great interest of scientific community in the realization of such devices mainly concerns the common believe they could be enormously faster than their classical counterparts so allowing their employment in all the applied fields where computational power is a key feature. Furthermore, the study of Quantum Computing, both at the physical and computational level, would be very important for a deeper understanding of the quantum behavior of a very wide range of physical systems including condensed matter, living systems, elementary particles, astrophysical structures and so on. Despite the general theoretical basis of quantum computing are sufficiently understood, the actual realization of a general - purpose and really usable quantum computer has posed great difficulties so far, mainly related to the issue of "quantum decoherence", the computational speed and scalability many of which still remain substantially unsolved. This volume doesn't mean to represent a complete or a beginner guide to Quantum Computing but has the aim to present some of its most interesting and fascinating developments in different frontier areas related to both theoretical and applied aspects, such, for example, the possibility to realize a quantum superfast "hypercomputing" system using water molecules as physical substrate to process, storage and retrieve information; the connection between quantum computers and quantum gravity; the development of an "instantaneous quantum computer algorithm"; the realization of a universal quantum computer, of a brain-like quantum supercomputer and many others frontiers topics. The target audience of this book is then composed by scientists and researchers interested in the most advanced theoretical and applied developments of quantum computation and quantum information.

The year 2015 was designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the Year of Light and Light-based Technologies, and also marks the anniversaries of a number of significant historical events related to light. In 1015, Ibn Al-Haytham published his book of optics; in 1815, Fresnel first proposed the notion that light is actually a wave; James Clerk Maxwell then firmly established this concept with his electromagnetic theory of light propagation; and Einstein announced his discovery of the photoelectric effect, demonstrating that light is made of photons in 1905, followed in 1915 by his general theory of relativity, in which light plays a central role. This book presents lectures from the International School of Physics Enrico Fermi summer school: Frontiers in Modern Optics, held in Varenna, Italy, in June and July 2014. The school attempted to give a broad and modern overview of the field of optics in a series of lectures addressing ongoing topics of research. Subject areas include: nonlinear optics; light as an investigation tool in modern physics; and detection and imaging. A unique feature of the book is that each chapter has been prepared as a collaborative effort between students at the school and lecturers. This approach has proved very successful and may well provide a model for the future.

This book provides a cutting-edge research overview on the latest developments in the field of Optics and Photonics. All chapters are authored by the pioneers in their field and will cover the developments in Quantum Photonics, Optical properties of 2D Materials, Optical Sensors, Organic Opto-electronics, Nanophotonics, Metamaterials, Plasmonics, Quantum Cascade lasers, LEDs, Biophotonics and biomedical photonics and spectroscopy.