Introduction to Quantum Optics

Gilbert Grynberg was a CNRS Senior Scientist at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, and a Professor at the École Polytechnique. He was a pioneer in many domains, including atomic spectroscopy, nonlinear optics and laser cooled atoms in optical lattices. Alain Aspect is a CNRS Senior Scientist and Professor at the Institut d'Optique and the Ecole Polytechnique. A pioneer of the field of quantum entanglement, his research covers quantum optics, laser cooling of atoms, atom optics, Bose-Einstein condensates and atom lasers, and quantum atom optics. Claude Fabre is a Professor in the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel at the Université Pierre et Marie Curie Paris 6, and a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. His fields of research are quantum optics, atomic and laser physics, both experimentally and theoretically.

'The advantage of this book is to give both [the semi-classical and the full quantum] approaches, starting with the first, illustrated by several simple examples, and introducing progressively the second, clearly showing why it is essential for understanding certain phenomena … I believe that this challenge to present and to illustrate both approaches in a single book has been taken up successfully … I have the highest admiration for [the authors'] enthusiasm, their scientific rigor, their ability to give simple and precise physical explanations, and their quest to illuminate clearly the difficult points of the subject without oversimplification.' Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, from the Foreword

• Part I. Semi-Classical Description of Matter-Light Interaction: 1. The evolution of interacting quantum systems; 2. The semi-classical approach: atoms interacting with a classical electromagnetic field; 3. Principles of lasers; Part II. Quantum Description of Light and its Interaction with Matter: 4. Quantisation of free radiation; 5. Free quantum radiation; 6. Interaction of an atom with the quantised electromagnetic field; Part III. Applying Both Approaches: 7. Non-linear optics: from the semi-classical approach to quantum effects; 8. Laser manipulation of atoms: from incoherent atom optics to atom lasers; References; Index.