Physics 8.421

Atomic and optical Physics

		Room	Tel.	e-mail
Lecturers:	Prof. Vladan Vuletic	26-231	324-1174	vuletic@mit.edu
	Prof. Wolfgang Ketterle	26-243	253-6815	ketterle@mit.edu
Assistants:	Marko Cetina	26-225	452-4387	mcetina@mit.edu
	Ye-ryoung Lee	26-255	452-4420	yeryoung@mit.edu
	Ian Leroux	26-217	452-4793	idleroux@mit.edu
	Christian Sanner	26-259	253-5926	sanner@mit.edu
	Monika Schleier-Smith	26-217	452-4793	schleier@mit.edu
Secretary:	Joanna Keseberg	26-237	253-6830	j_k@mit.edu

Lectures: Mondays, Wednesday, 9:30-11:00, Room 4-145

First day of classes: Wed, 2/6

Office hours: by appointment (just send an e-mail ….)

Midterm exam: in class (9.30 - 11am) on Wednesday, April 2^nd, 2008.

Midterm Exam Solution

Histogram for the midterm exam

Previous midterm exams 2004 2006

Homework

Assignment 1 (due Mon 2/25)	Solutions 1
Assignment 2 (due Mon 3/3)	Solutions 2
Assignment 3 (due Wed 3/12)	Solutions 3
Assignment 4 (due Wed 3/19)	Solutions 4
Assignment 5 (due Fri 4/4)	Solutions 5
Assignment 6 (due Fri 4/11)	Solutions 6
Assignment 7 (due Wed 4/23)	Solutions 7
Assignment 8 (due Mon 4/28)	Solutions 8
Assignment 9 (due Mon 5/5)	Solutions 9
Assignment 10 (due Mon 5/5)	Solutions 10

MIT grade management

Recommended books Course requirements

2006 web site

Lecture Notes:

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Lecture 3

Lecture 4

Lecture 5 (electronic structure of one and two-electron atoms)

Lecture 6 (Fine structure and lamb shift)

Lecture 7&8 (HFS, Isotope effects) Hydrogen spectroscopy

Lecture 9 (Atoms in external magnetic fields)

Lecture 10 (Atoms in external electric fields)

Lecture 11 (Atom-light interaction: Einstein rate equations)

Lecture 12 (Atom-light interaction: interaction Hamiltonian, strong monochromatic field, broadband excitation)

Lecture 13 (Quantization of em field, Einstein A coefficient)

Lecture 14 (dressed atom, selection rules, weak narrowband excitation)

Lecture 14A

Lecture 15 Lineshapes: simple models

Lecture 16 Lineshapes: general perturbation theory

Lecture 17 Lineshapes of confined particles and Dicke narrowing

Lecture 18 Fluorescence and pressure broadening

Lecture 19 Higher-order radiation processes

Lecture 20 Two-photon processes I

Lecture 21 Two-photon processes II

Lecture 22 Coherence: Two-level systems

Lecture 23 Coherence: Three-level systems, CPT, EIT

Lecture 24 Coherence: EIT, STIRAP

Lecture 25 Coherence: Fano profiles, slow light

Lecture 26 Superradiance, Raman superradiance, catching light

Additional reading:

For lectures 1/2: Feynman, “The origin of the refractive index”, from “Lectures on Physics I”, lecture 31.

D. J. Wineland, J. J. Bollinger, W. M. Itano, F. L. Moore, and D. J. Heinzen, “Spin squeezing and reduced quantum noise in spectroscopy,” Phys. Rev. A 46, R6797 (1992). This is a research paper on the quantum mechanical noise in precision measurements, and how correlated quantum mechanical states can be used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

D. J. Wineland, J. J. Bollinger, W. M. Itano, and D. J. Heinzen, “Squeezed atomic states and projection noise in spectroscopy,” Phys. Rev. A 50, R67 (1994). Follow-up paper on the previous research paper.

For lecture 7: D. J. Heinzen and M. S. Feld, “Vacuum Radiative Level Shift and Spontaneous-Emission Linewidth of an Atom in an Optical Resonator”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 59, 2623 - 2626 (1987). This paper reports the observation of the effect of a resonator on the radiative level shift (part of the Lamb shift).

For lecture 8: Original paper on Lamb shift (1947)

State of the art in hydrogen precision spectroscopy:

Hänsch 1994 Biraben 1999

For lecture 17: Book section by Demtröder on pressure broadening and shifts

For lecture 24: research paper on dark-state transfer between different locations