Quantum Optics

A new formalism for diffraction gratings consisting of a single grating surface surrounded by a number of planar films is presented. The diffraction problem is shown to reduce to the solution of a Fredholm integral equation of the first kind. The numerical implementation has been thoroughly tested using the constraints of energy conservation and reciprocity. A new constraint relating the phases and efficiencies of the propagating orders excited when a lossless symmetric transmission grating is operated in a first-order Littrow mount has been derived theoretically and verified numerically. The theory has been used to optimize the selective performance of a solar absorber consisting of a thin graphite layer deposited on a copper substrate. The superposition of a grating absorption feature on the primary resonance minimum of the absorptivity curve is shown to improve the integrated absorptivity by approximately 10 per cent.     

Reconstructing the Wavefunction in Quantum Optics

Abstract

The problem of reconstructing a wavefunction from probability distributions is re-examined in the context of whether a pure state vector of a single-mode optical field can be reconstructed from the photon number and phase probability distributions. An analytical solution is given for the case where the state of the mode is a superposition of a finite number of Fock states.     

Negative‐Index Materials: New Frontiers in Optics

A lot of recent interest has been focused on a new class of materials, the so‐called left‐handed materials (LHMs) or negative‐index materials, which exhibit highly unusual electromagnetic properties and hold promise for new device applications. These materials do not exist in nature and can only be fabricated artificially; for this reason, they are called metamaterials. Their unique properties are not determined by the fundamental physical properties of their constituents, but rather by the shape and distribution of the specific patterns included in them. Metamaterials can be designed to exhibit both electric and magnetic resonances that can be separately tuned to occur in frequency bands from megahertz to terahertz frequencies, and hopefully to the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. This article presents a short history of the field, describes the underlying physics, and reviews the experimental and theoretical status of the field at present. Many interesting questions on how to fabricate more isotropic LHMs, on how to push the operational frequency to optical wavelengths, how to reduce the losses, and how to incorporate active or nonlinear materials in LHMs remain to be explored further.     

Quantum Optics of Linear Systems

Abstract

The classical Jones calculus for optical networks is utilized to formulate a general theory of transfer of quantum fields through a linear quantum optics device. For input fields having Gaussian quasi-distribution functions, the output distributions can be calculated explicitly. The formalism is applied to the simple beam splitter as an illustration.