Abstract
In Chaps. 1 – 11, we consider the interactions of atoms with optical fields in the semiclassical approximation, a treatment which gives good agreement with many experiments. Nevertheless several significant experiments show strong disagreements with such semiclassical theories. The present Chapter treats the atom-field interaction fully quantum mechanically, providing a basic understanding of spontaneous emission and laying the foundations for the treatment of more advanced problems in quantum optics such as resonance fluorescence, squeezed states and the laser linewidth that are developed in the remaining chapters in the book. Basically all we need to do in laying the foundations for these treatments is to combine the knowledge we have gained from the semiclassical theory of the atom-field interactions with the quantized field treatment of Chap. 12.
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References
Barnett, S. M., P. Filipowicz, J. Javanainen, P. L. Knight, and P. Meystre, “The Jaynes-Cummings model and beyond,” in Frontiers in Quantum Optics,E. R. Pike and S. Sarkar, eds. (Adam Hilger, Bristol 1986), p. 485. This gives a detailed review of the Jaynes-Cummings model.
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Itzykson, C. and J. B. Zuber (1980), Quantum Field Theory,McGraw-Hill, is an excellent monograph on this topic.
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© 1991 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Meystre, P., Sargent, M. (1991). Interaction between Atoms and Quantized Fields. In: Elements of Quantum Optics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11654-8_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-11654-8_13
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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