March 24, 2004
Across a broad front in physics, an exciting advance in recent years has been the increasing ability to observe and manipulate the dynamical processes of individual quantum systems. In this endeavor, an important physical system has been a single atom strongly coupled to the electromagnetic field of a high-Q (optical or microwave) cavity within the setting of cavity quantum electrodynamics (cavity QED). Diverse new phenomena in cavity QED include the realization of nonlinear interactions between single photons and the development of a laser in a regime of strong coupling that operates with "one-and-the-same-atom". Because of several unique advantages, cavity QED is playing an important role in the new science of quantum information, such as for the realization of complex quantum networks and for the investigation of quantum dynamics of single quantum systems. This presentation will trace the development of cavity QED from its origins in atomic and laser physics through to the modern achievement of strong coupling for single atoms and photons and to applications in quantum information science. The emphasis will be on a few simple concepts for understanding what is by now a diverse set of phenomena in cavity QED.
The University of Texas at Austin