Syllabus & Schedule
Below is a class syllabus, a detailed schedule for the semester, and some background information on quantum optics. In addition to standard lecture material, we will also discuss relevant colloquiua and AMO and CM physics seminars, helping to prepare students for the seminars or answer questions raised by the seminars. The schedule below is tentative: it will adjust corresponding to student interests, time spent discussing teaser questions, and discussion of seminars.
The structure of each lecture will be to begin with any general questions about reading or homework, then have a disussion about the teaser question raised in the previous class. If there is a relevant seminar, I will give some background to help understand it. Then we will cover the lesson of the day. Grades will be available for students to track on owlspace.
Quantum optics has a rich history, born from Dirac's quantization of Maxwell's equations in 1927, but truly becoming its own discipline with the advent of the laser in the 1960's jointly with the theoretical development of our understanding of quantum light. This invention gave us a new way to probe and manipulate matter, offering many unique capabilities and now serving as the most precise ruler of space and time. Modern quantum optics is a broad field studying fundamental questions regarding quantum systems coupled to their environment, and the techniques find their use from precision measurement to condensed matter to quantum information science. This course will cover the theoretical background needed to understand modern research in this multifaceted field.