The course will extend on the topics discussed in the ”Quantum Optics” lecture given in the summer semester and will explore topics that are more advanced.
The main part of the lecture (about two-third) will be devoted to treatment of light-matter interaction in open quantum systems. Any realistic quantum system (an atom or the quantized field) will experience loss of quantum coherence through interaction with the surrounding environment (for example by losing a photon through imperfect cavity mirrors). Investigation of realistic quantum optical systems requires methods that can treat such systems, without having to keep full track of the properties of the large surrounding environment. To do this, we will learn about the density matrix approach and Lindblad master equation for solving the dynamics of open systems in the Schrödinger picture. We will also visit Heisenberg–Langevin equations for treating open systems in the Heisenberg picture. We will then address basic yet application-relevant effects, such as a 2-level system in a realistic cavity, resonance fluorescence, and squeezed-light generation (depending on our speed of progress).
A smaller part of the lecture (about one-third) will be devoted to introducing the physics and the mathematical methods for phase-space treatments in quantum optics, such as introducing quasi-probability distributions (for example the Wigner function) and investigating the quasi-probability distributions of some basic states like coherent states, squeezed states, and Fock states. |