Abstract
Up to now, we have treated many problems in light-matter interactions and have obtained results in excellent agreement with experiments without having to quantize the electromagnetic field. Such a semiclassical description is sufficient to describe most problems in quantum optics. However, there are a few notable exceptions where a classical description of the field leads to the wrong answer. These include spontaneous emission, the Lamb shift, resonance fluorescence, the anomalous gyromagnetic moment of the electron, and “non-classical” states of light such as squeezed states. The remainder of this book deals with selected problems in light-matter interactions that require field quantization. The present chapter treats the quantization of the electromagnetic field in free space. Those familiar with this subject might want to glance at our notation and then proceed directly to Chap. 13.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Cohen-Tannoudji, C., J. Dupont-Roc, and G. Grynberg (1989), Photons and Atoms, Introduction to Quantum Electrodynamics, John-Wiley & Sons, New York.
Glauber, R. J. (1963), Phys. Rev. 130, 2529, and 131, 2766.
Glauber, R. J. (1965), in: Quantum Optics and Electronics,Les Houches, Ed. by C. DeWitt, A. Blandin, and C. Cohen-Tannoudji, Gordon and Breach, New York. pp. 331–381, gives a pedagogical review of quantum coherence, coherent states and detection theory.
Haken, H. (1975), Rev. Mod. Phys. 47, 67.
Klauder, J. R. and E. C. G. Sudarshan (1968), Fundamentals of Quantum Optics, W. A. Benjamin, New York.
Louise11, W. H. (1973), Quantum Statistical Properties of Radiation, John Wiley & Sons, New York. A classic reference book on boson operator algebra, quantized fields and their applications in quantum optics.
Nussenzveig, H. M. (1974), Introduction to Quantum Optics, Gordon and Breach, New York.
Risken, H. (1984), The Fokker-Planck Equation, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg.
Sargent, M. III, M. O. Scully, and W. E. Lamb, Jr. (1977), Laser Physics,Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Reading, MA. See especially Chaps. 14 and 15.
Vogel, K. and H. Risken (1989), Phys. Rev. A39, 4675.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1990 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Meystre, P., Sargent, M. (1990). Field Quantization. In: Elements of Quantum Optics. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07007-9_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-07007-9_12
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-07009-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-07007-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive