Physics 482-01 & 690-01
Spring 2024

Quantum Optics and Atomics 

Course Materials:

• Week 0: 1/25                     Intro to Atomic Physics and Quantum Optics
  Syllabus
  Thursday, January 25 Overheads -- Introductory lecture
  Lecture 1, Thursday, January 25 Review of basics, semi-classical atom.
  
  Problem Set 1, target due date: February 1
  
  
  
• Week 1: 1/30-2/1                     Semi-classical atom-light interactions
  No class on January 30, optional discussion on Hanbury-Brown and Twiss experiment.
  Lecture 2, Thursday, February 1 Dipole radiation, semi-classical atom interacting with an EM wave.
  
  
  
• Week 2: 2/6-8                     Coherence
  Lecture 3, Tuesday, February 6 Semi-classical atom, Rayleigh scattering, coherence.
  
  Lecture 4, Thursday, February 8 Michelson interferometer, coherence length, 1st order coherence.
  
  Problem Set 2, due date: February 15
  
  Optional: Tutorial on the "rubber ruler" paradox (LIGO interferometer) [PDF].
  
  
  
• Week 3: 2/13-15                     1st and 2nd Order Coherence
  Lecture 5, Tuesday, February 13 1st order correlation function, Wiener-Khintchine theorem.
  Tuesday, February 13 Overheads 1st order coherence and pulsed lasers.
  
  Lecture 6, Thursday, February 15 2nd order coherence, thermal vs laser light, bunching.
  Thursday, February 15 Overheads 2nd order coherence and bunching.
  
  
  
• Week 4: 2/20-22                     2-Level Atom in an EM field
  Tuesday, February 20 Overheads Applications of the 2nd order auto-correlation function g²(τ).
  Lecture 7, Tuesday, February 20 2-level atom, time-dependence and measurement basis, Bloch sphere.
  
  Lecture 8, Thursday, February 22 2-level atom with an EM field, rotating wave approx., Rabi flopping.
  
  Problem Set 3, due date: February 27 (revised to Feb. 29).
  
  
  
• Week 5: 2/27-29                     Dressed Atom Theory
  Lecture 9, Tuesday, February 27 Dressed atom picture, avoided level crossing, Landau-Zener transitions.
  Tuesday, February 27 Overheads 2-level and 5-level Rabi flopping examples.
  
  Lecture 10, Thursday, February 29 2-level dressed atom Hamiltonian, AC Stark shift.
  Thursday, February 29 Overheads AC Stark shifts, optical dipole traps, and Mollow triplets.
  
  Problem Set 4, due date: March 7.
  
  
  
• Week 6: 3/5-7                     Spontaneous Emission
  Lecture 11, Tuesday, March 5 Bloch sphere revisited, Ramsey interference.
  Tuesday, March 5 Overheads Atomic clocks and the Ramsey interferometer.
  
  Lecture 12, Thursday, March 7 Spontaneous emission and the photon vacuum.
  
  Problem Set 5, due date: March 26.
  
  
  
• Week 7: 3/12-14                     Spring Break !!
  
  
  
• Week 8: 3/19-21                     Density Matrix and Optical Bloch Equations
  Lecture 13, Tuesday, March 19 Spontaneous emission, density matrix, optical Bloch equations.
  
  Midterm on Thursday, March 21.
  
  
• Week 9: 3/26-28                     Resonance Fluorescence, Intro to Monte Carlo
  Lecture 14, Tuesday, March 26 Optical Bloch equations, resonance fluorescence, Beer's law
  Tuesday, March 26 Overheads Absorption imaging.
  
  Thursday, March 28 Overheads TUTORIAL: Intro to Monte Carlo Simulations (classical).
  Tutorial worksheet
  
  Problem Set 6, due date: April 4. (new date: April 9, 2024)
  
  Undergraduate Students: Guidelines for Final Paper and Oral Presentation, due dates: Last week of classes
  
  
  
• Week 10: 4/2-4                     Quantum Trajectories, Multi-Level Atoms
  Lecture 15, Tuesday, April 2 Quantum Monte Carlo wavefunctions, quantum trajectories, fine structure Hamiltonian.
  Tuesday, April 2 Overheads Quantum trajectories example.
  
  Lecture 16, Thursday, April 4 Hyperfine structure Hamiltonian, Zeeman substructure, Wigner-Eckart theorem.
  Thursday, April 4 Overheads Electronic structure of alkali elements.
  
  
  
• Week 11: 4/9-11                     Laser Cooling and Trapping I
  Lecture 17, Tuesday, April 9 M1 transition selection rules.
  Tuesday, April 9 Overheads Breit-Rabi formula, Clebsch-Gordan coefficients, cycling transitions.
  
  Lecture 17, Thursday, April 11 Optical E1 transition selection rules.
  Thursday, April 11 Overheads Doppler cooling, magneto-optical trap (MOT).
  
  Problem Set 7, due date: April 18.
  
  
  
• Week 12: 4/16-18                     Laser Cooling and Trapping II
  Lecture 19, Tuesday, April 16 Doppler cooling temperature.
  
  Lecture 20, Thursday, April 18 Polarization gradient lattice, Sisyphus cooling, magnetic trapping.
  Thursday, April 18 Overheads Sisyphus cooling.
  
  
  
• Week 13: 4/23-25                     Magnetic Traps ... and EM Field Quantization
  Lecture 21, Tuesday, April 23 Magnetic traps, RF evaporation.
  Tuesday, April 23 Overheads Evaporative cooling, dressed atom picture.
  
  Lecture 22, Thursday, April 25 Quantization of the electromagnetic field, Fock states.
  
  
  
• Week 14: 4/30-5/2                     Photons: Fock States and Coherent States
  Undergraduate presentation on April 30.
  Lecture 23, Tuesday, April 30 Fock states and their E-field, photon number, and phase.
  
  Undergraduate final paper due on May 2.
  Lecture 24, Thursday, May 2 Coherent states and their E-field, photon number, and phase.
  
  Practice problems on EM field quantization
  
  
  
• Week 15: 5/7                     FINAL EXAM
  Final Exam (for graduate students) will be held Tuesday, May 7, 9 am - 12 pm in Small Hall room 122