Modern Atomic Physics

Much of our understanding of physics in the last 30-plus years has come from research on atoms, photons, and their interactions. Collecting information previously scattered throughout the literature, Modern Atomic Physics provides students with one unified guide to contemporary developments in the field. After reviewing metrology and preliminary material, the text explains core areas of atomic physics. Important topics discussed include the spontaneous emission of radiation, stimulated transitions and the properties of gas, the physics and applications of resonance fluorescence, coherence, cooling and trapping of charged and neutral particles, and atomic beam magnetic resonance experiments. Covering standards, a different way of looking at a photon, stimulated radiation, and frequency combs, the appendices avoid jargon and use historical notes and personal anecdotes to make the topics accessible to non-atomic physics students. Written by a leader in atomic and optical physics, this text gives a state-of-the-art account of atomic physics within a basic quantum mechanical framework. It shows students how atomic physics has played a key role in many other areas of physics.

Metrology Measurement systems Universal units and fundamental constants Atomic units Preliminaries Classical harmonic oscillator Quantum harmonic oscillator Coherent states Squeezed states Radiation Atoms Spectroscopic notation Energy levels of one electron atoms Interaction with magnetic fields Atoms in static electric fields—Stark effect Permanent atomic electric dipole moment (EDM) Atoms in oscillating electric fields Strong oscillating fields—Dressed atoms Nucleus Isotope effects Hyperfine structure Resonance Introduction Magnetic resonance Magnetic resonance of quantized spin Resonance in a two state system Density matrix Resonance of a realistic two state system Interaction Interaction of EM radiation with atoms Selection rules and angular distribution Transition rates Spontaneous emission Order-of-magnitude of spontaneous emission Saturation intensities Multiphoton Two photon absorption Two photon de-excitation processes Raman processes Dressed atom for multiphoton processes CoherenceCoherence in single atoms Coherence in localized ensembles Coherence in extended ensembles Mixed examples Coherent control in multilevel atoms Other effects in coherent control Lineshapes Low intensity and simple collisions Relativistic effects in emission and absorption Lineshape of atoms in a gas Confined particles Gaussian beam optics Spectroscopy Alkali atoms Experimental tools Doppler-free techniques Nonlinear magneto-optic rotation—NMOR Cooling and TrappingSpontaneous force Stimulated force Magnetic trapping and evaporative cooling Bose-Einstein condensationOptical tweezers Ion trapping AppendicesA. Standards B. What is a photon? C. Einstein as armchair detective: The case of stimulated radiation D. Frequency comb Index Problems appear at the end of each chapter.

Vasant Natarajan is a professor in the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. His research focuses on laser cooling and trapping of atoms, quantum optics, optical tweezers, quantum computation in ion traps, and tests of time-reversal symmetry violation in the fundamental laws of physics using laser-cooled atoms. He earned a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.