Introductory Quantum Optics

Christopher C. Gerry is Professor of Physics at Lehman College, City University of New York. He was one of the first to exploit the use of group theoretical methods in quantum optics, and is a highly respected researcher and lecturer in the field. He has written well-regarded books, both for advanced students and researchers, and for a more general audience. Sir Peter L. Knight FRS is Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London, a past president of the Institute of Physics, 2004 President of the Optical Society of America, Chair of the UK National Quantum Technology Programme Strategy Advisory Board, and Chair of the Quantum Metrology Institute at the National Physical Laboratory. His research centers on quantum technology and quantum optics and he has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including the Thomas Young Medal and Glazebrook Medal of the Institute of Physics, Optica's Frederic Ives Medal and Herbert Walther Award, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, and the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Field quantization; 3. Coherent states; 4. Emission and absorption of radiation by atoms; 5. Quantum coherence functions; 6. Beam splitters and interferometers; 7. Nonclassical light; 8. Dissipative interactions and decoherence; 9. Optical test of quantum mechanics; 10. Experiments in cavity QED and with trapped ions; 11. Applications of entanglement: Heisenberg-limited interferometry and quantum information processing; Appendix A. The density operator, entangled states, the Schmidt decomposition, and the von Neumann entropy; Appendix B. Quantum measurement theory in a (very small) nutshell; Appendix C. Derivation of the effective Hamiltonian for dispersive (far off-resonant) interactions; Appendix D. Nonlinear optics and spontaneous parametric down conversion; Index.