Quantum Optics

course held at Trento University

spring semester 2023-24

Fully blackboard teaching!
(Ask the teacher if you are interested in the lecture movies from 2019-20)

General infos

Moodle page of the course (restricted)

Lecture notes:

• lecture 1: Maxwell equations and wave propagation

• lecture 2: Waveguides and cavities.
  lecture 2bis: propagation of wavepacket across a Fabry-Perot cavity
  lecture 2ter: real-time description of field evolution in FP
  lecture 2quater: more on the mass of the photon in a cavity or in a waveguide

• lecture 3: Radiation and scattering
  lecture 3bis: optical density of 2D atomic sheet

• lecture 4: Optical properties of two-level atoms: semiclassical theory
  lecture 4bis: more on the Rotating-Wave approximation

• lecture 6: The laser

• lecture 7: Quantization of the electromagnetic field

• lecture 8: States of the quantum e.m. field: single photons vs. coherent states. Spontaneous emission.
  lecture 8bis: the wavefunction of a spontaneously emitted photon. Comparison with coherent fields.
  

• lecture 9: Statistical properties of radiation. Photodetection signals and coherence.

• lecture 10: Atom and photons in a cavity. Generation of entangled states of light and matter.

• addendum: Feynman path integral in elementary quantum mechanics

Extra topics:

• Open Quantum Systems by Alberto Biella (Pitaevskii BEC Center): Lecture notes; slides 1 and 2.

• Optomechanics by Gianluca Rastelli (Pitaevskii BEC Center): Slides.

Theoretical exercises of this year:

• still to be invented

Exercises from previous years (for individual training)

• exercise 1: Fibers, Beam-splitters & Rings. Solution
  
  
• exercise 2: Optical Bistability and Optical Limiting. Solution
  
  
• exercise 3: From coupled pendula to Electromagnetically Induced Transparency. Solution

• exercise 4: The collective excitation modes of a VCSEL planar laser. Solution

• exercise 5: Quantum theory of the beam-splitter. Solution
  
  
• exercise 6: Resonant scattering of light from two-level atom. Solution
  
  
• exercise 7: Absorption vs. Extinction. Solution


• exercise 8: Radiation from an emitter located in front of a mirror. Sketchy solution
  
  
• exercise 9: Phase transitions in nonlinear optics. Sketchy solution
  
  
• exercise 10: The phase operator in quantum mechanics. Solution
  
  
• exercise 11: (Not so) quantum ducks. Solution
  
  
• exercise 12: A classical model for superradiance
  
  
• exercise 13: Second Harmonic Generation. Solution
  
  
• exercise 14: Optical non-reciprocity and optical diodes. Solution
  
  
• exercise 15: Coupled-mode theory and strong light-matter coupling. Solution
  
  
• exercise 16: Phase conjugating mirror (and dynamical Casimir effect for the brave ones) Solution
  
  
  

Past experimental exercises:

• experimental exercise 1: Building a physical theory.

• experimental exercise 2: An intriguing dark ring.

Topics likely to be not covered this year:

• lecture 5: Optical response of three-level atoms: Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and slow light
  lecture 5bis: Light storage and retrieval; dynamic photonic structures.