Atomic and Optical Physics I
The first of a two-term subject sequence that provides the foundations for contemporary research in selected areas of atomic and optical phsyics. The interaction of radiation with atoms: resonance; absorption, stimulated and spontaneous emission; methods of resonance, dressed atom formalism, masers and lasers, cavity quantum electrodynamics; structure of simple atoms, behavior in very strong fields; fundamental tests: time reversal, parity violations, Bell's inequalities; and experimental methods.
Spring 2014
This is the first of a two-semester subject sequence that provides the foundations for contemporary research in selected areas of atomic and optical physics. Topics covered include the interaction of radiation with atoms: resonance; absorption, stimulated and spontaneous emission; methods of resonance, dressed atom formalism, masers and lasers, cavity quantum electrodynamics; structure of simple atoms, behavior in very strong fields; fundamental tests: time reversal, parity violations, Bell's inequalities; and experimental methods.
Readings
- Textbook: There was no textbook. The course was based on several books and original publications.
- Foot, Christopher J., Atomic Physics . Oxford University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780198506966. This is an excellent text on atomic structure, laser cooling and trapping at an undergraduate level which is below the treatment in class, but it provides the basics.
- Loudon, Rodney. The Quantum Theory of Light . Oxford University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780198501763.
- Dalibard, J., J. M. Raimond, and J. Zinn-Justin, eds. Proceeding of the Summer School in Les Houches 1990: Fundamental Systems in Quantum Optics . (Les Houches) Session LIII, 1990. North Holland, 1993. ISBN: 9780444897367.
- Arimondo, E., W. D. Phillips, and F. Strumia, eds. Proceeding of the Summer School in Varenna 1991: “ Enrico Fermi .” In Laser Manipulation of Atoms and Ions, Proceedings of the International School of Physics Course CXVIII . North-Holland, 1993. ISBN: 9780444899934.
- Svelto, O. Principle of Lasers . Springer, 2009. ISBN: 9780306457487. Mainly on lasers (Basic Principles, Resonators, Types of Lasers), but nice short discussions of coherence and other concepts.
- Corney, A. Atomic and Laser Spectroscopy . Oxford University Press, 1977. ISBN: 9780198511380. This book is on atoms, discusses hyperfine structure, selection rules and other effects in detail, and gives many examples of techniques and experiments. Gives a very good impression of the state of experimental atomic physics in the ‘70s.
- Thorne, A.P. Spectrophysics . Chapman and Hall, 1974. ISBN: 9780412125102. Nice book on spectroscopy, with some emphasis on classical methods and plasma spectroscopy. Long chapter on line widths and shapes.
- The book most relevant to the course (mainly for 8.422) is: Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude, Jaques Dupont-Roc, and Gilbert Grynberg. Atom-Photon-Interactions: Basic Processes and Applications . Wiley-VCH, 1998. ISBN: 9780471293361.
- LEC #: 1-5 · TOPICS: Resonance · READINGS: No Readings
- LEC #: 9-12 · TOPICS: Atoms in external fields · READINGS: No Readings
- LEC #: 20-21 · TOPICS: Two-photon excitation · READINGS: No Readings
Prerequisites & course information
Prereq: 8.05 G (Spring) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2014
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.