Spontaneous emission is the process in which a quantum mechanical system transits from an excited energy state to a lower energy state and emits a quantized amount of energy in the form of a photon. Spontaneous emission is ultimately responsible for most of the light we see all around us; it is so ubiquitous that there are many names given to what is essentially the same process. If atoms are excited by some means other than heating, the spontaneous emission is called luminescence. For example, fireflies are luminescent. And there are different forms of luminescence depending on how excited atoms are produced. If the excitation is effected by the absorption of radiation the spontaneous emission is called fluorescence. Sometimes molecules have a metastable level and continue to fluoresce long after the exciting radiation is turned off; this is called phosphorescence. Figurines that glow in the dark are phosphorescent. Lasers start via spontaneous emission, then during continuous operation work by stimulated emission.
Atomic, molecular, and optical physics (AMO) is the study of matter–matter and light–matter interactions, at the scale of one or a few atoms and energy scales around several electron volts. The three areas are closely interrelated. AMO theory includes classical, semi-classical and quantum treatments. Typically, the theory and applications of emission, absorption, scattering of electromagnetic radiation (light) from excited atoms and molecules, analysis of spectroscopy, generation of lasers and masers, and the optical properties of matter in general, fall into these categories.
Quantum optics is a branch of atomic, molecular, and optical physics dealing with how individual quanta of light, known as photons, interact with atoms and molecules. It includes the study of the particle-like properties of photons. Photons have been used to test many of the counter-intuitive predictions of quantum mechanics, such as entanglement and teleportation, and are a useful resource for quantum information processing.
Photoionization is the physical process in which an ion is formed from the interaction of a photon with an atom or molecule.
The Institute of Optics is a department and research center at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. The institute grants degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels through the University of Rochester School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Since its founding, the institute has granted over 2,500 degrees in optics, making up about half of the degrees awarded in the field in the United States. The institute is made up of 20 full-time professors, 12 professors with joint appointments in other departments, 10 adjunct professors, 5 research scientists, 11 staff, about 170 undergraduate students and about 110 graduate students.
Hermann Anton Haus was an Austrian-American physicist, electrical engineer, and Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Haus' research and teaching ranged from fundamental investigations of quantum uncertainty as manifested in optical communications to the practical generation of ultra-short optical pulses. In 1994, the Optical Society of America recognized Dr. Haus' contributions with its Frederic Ives Medal, the society's highest award. He also received OSA's Charles Hard Townes Medal in 1987, and was a Fellow of the society. Haus authored or co-authored eight books, published nearly 300 articles, and presented his work at virtually every major conference and symposium on laser and quantum electronics and quantum optics around the world. He was awarded the National Medal of Science in 1995 and was adopted into RPI's Alumni Hall of Fame in 2007.
Vladimir (Vlad) M. Shalaev is a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and Scientific Director for Nanophotonics at Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University.
Paul Bruce Corkum is a Canadian physicist specializing in attosecond physics and laser science. He holds a joint University of Ottawa–NRC chair in attosecond photonics. He also holds academic positions at Texas A&M University and the University of New Mexico. Corkum is both a theorist and an experimentalist.
A trojan wave packet is a wave packet that is nonstationary and nonspreading. It is part of an artificially created system that consists of a nucleus and one or more electron wave packets, and that is highly excited under a continuous electromagnetic field. Its discovery as one of significant contributions to the Quantum Theory was awarded the 2022 Wigner Medal for Iwo Bialynicki-Birula
Harry Jeffrey Kimble was an American physicist who was the William L. Valentine Professor and professor of physics at Caltech. His research was in quantum optics and is noted for groundbreaking experiments in physics including one of the first demonstrations of teleportation of a quantum state, quantum logic gate, and the development of the first single atom laser. According to Elizabeth Rogan, OSA CEO, "Jeff has led a revolution in modern physics through his pioneering research in the coherent control of the interactions of light and matter." Kimble's main research focus was in quantum information science and the quantum dynamics of open systems.
James Power Gordon was an American physicist known for his work in the fields of optics and quantum electronics. His contributions include the design, analysis and construction of the first maser in 1954 as a doctoral student at Columbia University under the supervision of C. H. Townes, development of the quantal equivalent of Shannon's information capacity formula in 1962, development of the theory for the diffusion of atoms in an optical trap in 1980, and the discovery of what is now known as the Gordon-Haus effect in soliton transmission, together with H. A. Haus in 1986. Gordon was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences.
Wolfgang P. Schleich is professor of theoretical physics and director of the quantum physics department at the University of Ulm.
In quantum optics, a superradiant phase transition is a phase transition that occurs in a collection of fluorescent emitters, between a state containing few electromagnetic excitations and a superradiant state with many electromagnetic excitations trapped inside the emitters. The superradiant state is made thermodynamically favorable by having strong, coherent interactions between the emitters.
Maciej Lewenstein, is a Polish theoretical physicist, currently an ICREA professor at ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences in Castelldefels near Barcelona. He is an author of over 480 scientific articles and 2 books, and recipient of many international and national prizes. In addition to quantum physics his other passion is music, and jazz in particular. His collection of compact discs and vinyl records includes over 9000 items.
Peter Walden Milonni is an American theoretical physicist who deals with quantum optics, laser physics, quantum electrodynamics and the Casimir effect.
Peter David Drummond is a physicist and distinguished professor in the Centre for Quantum and Optical Science at Swinburne University of Technology.
Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop is a professor of physics at the University of Queensland and an Officer of the Order of Australia. She has led pioneering research in atom optics, laser micro-manipulation using optical tweezers, laser enhanced ionisation spectroscopy, biophysics and quantum physics.
Carlos Ray Stroud, Jr. is an American physicist and educator. Working in the field of quantum optics, Stroud has carried out theoretical and experimental studies in most areas of the field from its beginnings in the late 1960s, studying the fundamentals of the quantum mechanics of atoms and light and their interaction. He has authored over 140 peer-reviewed papers and edited seven books. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and the Optical Society of America, as well as a Distinguished Traveling Lecturer of the Division of Laser Science of the American Physical Society. In this latter position he travels to smaller colleges giving colloquia and public lectures.
Avraham (Avi) Gover is an Israeli professor of Electrical Engineering in the Physical Electronics Department of the Engineering Faculty at Tel Aviv University, specializing in Quantum Electronics and FEL Physics. Gover is also the head of the Israeli Center for Radiation Sources and Applications in Ariel. In 2005, he was awarded the international FEL prize "in recognition for his outstanding contributions to Free Electron Laser science and technology".
Rodolfo Bonifacio was an Italian physicist, Professor Emeritus at University of Milan, who made significant contributions to laser physics and quantum optics.
