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Quantum Optics Books

Progress in Optics Volume 51

In the fourty-six years that have gone by since the first volume of Progress in Optics was published, optics has become one of the most dynamic fields of science. The volumes in this series which have appeared up to now contain more than 300 review articles by distinguished research workers, which have become permanent records for many important developments.

Focusing on the unresolved debate between Newton and Huygens from 300 years ago, The Nature of Light: What is a Photon? discusses the reality behind enigmatic photons. It explores the fundamental issues pertaining to light that still exist today.

Quantum Optics gives a comprehensive coverage of developments in quantum optics over the past years. In the early chapters the formalism of quantum optics is elucidated and the main techniques are introduced. These are applied in the later chapters to problems such as squeezed states of light, resonance fluorescence, laser theory, quantum theory of four-wave mixing, quantum non-demolition measurements, Bell's inequalities, and atom optics. Experimental results are used to illustrate the theory throughout. This yields the most comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of experiment and theory in quantum optics in any textbook.

This book gives an overview of the latest progress in the domain of quantum imaging. It reflects three and a half years of research carried out by leading specialists in the area within the Quantum Imaging network, a research programme of the European Community.

Einstein's Theory of Atom-Radiation Interaction.- Atom-Field Interaction: Semiclassical Approach.- States of the Electromagnetic Field II.- Quantum Theory of Coherence.- Phase Space Description.- Atom-Field Interaction.- System-Reservoir Interactions.- Resonance Fluorescence.- Quantum Laser Theory. Master Equation Approach.- Quantum Noise Reduction.- 1.- Quantum Noise Reduction. 2.- Quantum Phase.- Quantum Trajectories.- Atom Optics.- Measurements, Quantum Limits and all that.- Trapped Ions.- Decoherence.- Quantum Bits, Entanglement and Applications.- Quantum Cloning and Processing.- A Operator Relations.- B The Method of Characteristics.- C Proof.- D Stochastic Processes in a Nutshell.- E Derivations of the Homodyne Stochastic Schrödinger Differential Equation.- F Fluctuations.- G The No-Cloning Theorem.- H The Universal Quantum Cloning Machine.- I Hints to Solve the Problems.

This book is an introduction to the two closely related subjects of quantum optics and quantum information. The book gives a simple, self-contained introduction to both subjects, while illustrating the physical principles of quantum information processing using quantum optical systems. To make the book accessible to those with backgrounds other than physics, the authors also include a brief review of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, some aspects of quantum information, for example those pertaining to recent experiments on cavity QED and quantum dots, are described here for the first time in book form.

This second volume of Howard Carmichael’s essential work continues the development of the methods used in quantum optics to treat open quantum systems and their fluctuations. Its early chapters build upon the phase-space methods introduced in Volume 1. Cavity QED is adopted as a natural vehicle for extending quantum noise theory into this regime. In response to the issues raised, the theory of quantum trajectories is presented as a universal approach to the treatment of fluctuations in open quantum systems. This book presents its material at a level suitable for debutant researchers or students in an advanced course in quantum optics, or a course in quantum mechanics or statistical physics that deals with open quantum systems. The text is complemented by exercises and interspersed notes that point the reader to side issues or a deeper exploration of the material presented. Professor Carmichael was the recipient in 2003 of the Max Born Award of the Optical Society of America.

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