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Quantum technologies are built on the power of coherent superposition. Atomic coherence is typically generated from optical coherence, most often via Rabi oscillations. However, canonical coherent states of light create imperfect resources;…
Light, being massless, casts no shadow; under ordinary circumstances, photons pass right through each other unimpeded. Here, we demonstrate a laser beam acting like an object - the beam casts a shadow upon a surface when the beam is…
Strong laser physics is a research direction that relies on the use of high-power lasers and has led to fascinating achievements ranging from relativistic particle acceleration to attosecond science. On the other hand, quantum optics has…
Since the development of lasers, we have continuously sought to advance techniques and theory to obtain beams with a high degree of coherence, as natural light sources provide incoherent light. However, there are applications where it is…
A laser beam is often modelled by a pure coherent state. In fact its state is mixed, even if it has coherent-state photon-number statistics (Poissonian), because the phase must vary. We consider such an ideal laser beam, with phase…
The paper offers a discrete thermodynamic model of lasers. Laser is an open system; its equilibrium is based on a balance of two thermodynamic forces, one related to the incoming pumping power and another to the emitted light. The basic…
We give a quantum information-theoretic description of an ideal propagating CW laser field and reinterpret typical quantum-optical experiments in light of this. In particular we show that contrary to recent claims [T. Rudolph and B. C.…
We demonstrate that light quanta of well defined characteristics can be generated in a coupled two-level system of three atoms. The quantum nature of light is controlled by the entanglement structure, discord, and monogamy of the system…
The invention of lasers 60 years ago is one of the greatest breakthroughs in modern optics. Throughout the years, lasers have enabled major scientific and technological advancements, and have been exploited in numerous applications due to…
It has been argued [T. Rudolph and B.C. Sanders, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 87}, 077903 (2001)] that continuous-variable quantum teleportation at optical frequencies has not been achieved because the source used (a laser) was not `truly…
Even though sunlight is by far the most abundant renewable energy source available to humanity, its dilute and variable nature has kept efficient ways to collect, store, and distribute this energy tantalisingly out of reach. Turning the…
We describe an optical bench in which we lock the relative frequencies or phases of a set of three lasers in order to use them in a cold atoms interferometry experiment. As a new feature, the same two lasers serve alternately to cool atoms…
Quantum information science and intense laser matter interaction are two apparently unrelated fields. Here, we introduce the notion of quantum information theory to intense laser driven processes by providing the quantum mechanical…
Stimulated emission of photons from a large number of atoms into the mode of a strong light field is the principle mechanism for lasing in "classical" lasers. The onset of lasing is marked by a threshold which can be characterised by a…
What is light and how to describe it has always been a central subject in physics. As our understanding has increased, so have our theories changed: Geometrical optics, wave optics and quantum optics are increasingly sophisticated…
We report the experimental realisation of a multibeam atom laser. A single continuous atom laser is outcoupled from a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) via an optical Raman transition. The atom laser is subsequently split into up to five…
It is shown that plasma-based optics can be used to guide and focus highly divergent laser-generated ion beams. A hollow cylinder is considered, which initially contains a hot electron population. Plasma streaming toward the cylinder axis…
Laser brightness is crucial in many optical processes, and is optimised by high power, high beam quality (low $M^2$) beams. Here we show how to improve the laser beam quality factor (reducing the $M^2$) of arbitrary structured light fields…
An efficient method to tune the spatial coherence of a degenerate laser over a broad range with minimum variation in the total output power is presented. It is based on varying the diameter of a spatial filter inside the laser cavity. The…
We give a detailed derivation of the master equation description of the coherent backscattering of laser light by cold atoms. In particular, our formalism accounts for the nonperturbative nonlinear response of the atoms when the injected…