| Quantum optics is the study of the particle nature of light, in the form of photons. Despite the ubiquity of electromagnetic fields, truly quantum behaviour is rare to observe and often subtle to describe. In fact some of the purest quantum optical effects arise from quantum fluctuations in the electromagnetic vacuum, which is classically a trivial, empty state of the field. In the decades since the advent of lasers and nonlinear optics, the study of quantum optics has become important both technologically and in terms of our fundamental understanding of quantum mechanics and light-matter interactions.
Topics covered in this course include: quantisation of the EM field; quantum states of light (vacuum state, number states, coherent states, thermal states); squeezing and entanglement; photon statistics and coherence functions; quantum descriptions of instruments and detectors; quantum interference and which-way information; light-matter interactions; nonlinear quantum optics. | 