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An Introduction to Quantum Optics
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This book is a selected collection of my lecture notes on quantum optics for my PhD thesis students and for an introductory-level graduate course at the University of Maryland.
My students and colleagues encouraged me to publish these lecture notes as a textbook or reference book that might be helpful in understanding the quantum theory of light from a relatively elementary, introductory level. The successful introduction of the concept of photon, or quantum of light, stimulated a new foundation of physics, namely, quantum theory. Today, quantum theory has turned out to be the overarching principle of modern physics. A quotation from John Archibald Wheeler: “It would be difficult to find a single subject among the physical sciences that is not affected in its foundations or in its applications by quantum theory.” After a century of wondering, what do we know about the photon itself? The photon is a wave: it has no mass, it travels at the highest speed in the universe, and it interferes with itself. The photon is a particle: it has a well-defined value of momentum and energy, and it even “spins” like a particle. The photon is neither a wave nor a particle, because whichever we think it is, we would have difficulty in explaining the other part of its behavior. The photon is a wave-like parti- cle and/or a particle-like wave: a photon can never be divided into parts, but interference of a single photon can be easily observed in a modern optics lab- oratory. It seems that a photon passes both paths of an interferometer when interference patterns are observed; however, if the interferometer is set in such a way that its two paths are “distinguishable,” the photon “knows” which path to follow and never passes through both paths. Apparently, a photon has to make a choice when facing an interferometer: a choice of “both-path” like a wave or “which-path” like a particle. Surprisingly, the choice is not necessary before passing through the interferometer. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the choice of which path and/or both paths can be delayed until after the photon has passed through the interfer- ometer
Yanhua Shih - Personal Name
1st Edtion
13: 978-1-4200-1248-
NONE
An Introduction to Quantum Optics
Management
English
Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
2011
USA
1-470
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