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Strong interaction between the light field and an atom is often achieved with cavities. Recent experiments have used a different configuration: a propagating light field is strongly focused using a system of lenses, the atom being supposed…
We discuss the absorber theory of radiation as put forward by Wheeler and Feynman. We show that it gives a better understanding of the photon compared to the usual quantum electrodynamics (QED) picture.
In the first part of this paper (mainly a review) we present general and formal (simple) introductions to the ordinary gaussian waves and to the Bessel waves, by explicitly separating the cases of the beams from the cases of the pulses;…
Optomechanics, the study of the mechanical interaction of light with matter, has proven to be a fruitful area of research that has yielded many notable achievements, including the direct detection of gravitational waves in kilometer-scale…
In a lesson on holography a tension is to be found between the ray model, the wave model, the phasor model and the particle model. Lessons depend on the previous experiences of the students, the intentions of the teacher as well as on other…
The perspectives of introductory classical physics students can often negatively influence how those students later interpret quantum phenomena when taking an introductory course in modern physics. A detailed exploration of student…
Elementary particle physics is gradually implemented into science curricula at high school level. However, common presentations on educational, semi-technical or popular level contain or support severe misconceptions. We discuss in…
Simple optical instruments are linear optical networks where the incident light modes are turned into equal numbers of outgoing modes by linear transformations. For example, such instruments are beam splitters, multiports, interferometers,…
In this work, I propose a way to help high school students and the general population understand quantum concepts by adopting a new inherently dual representation. Major difficulties in explaining to people the basic concepts of quantum…
In this Chapter, we give a brief review of the state of the art of theoretical and experimental studies of quantum fluids of light. Such systems consist of ensembles of photons that acquire a finite mass from spatial confinement or…
A light ray in space is characterized by two vectors: (i) a transverse spatial-vector associated with the point where the ray intersects a given spherical cap; (ii) an angular-frequency vector which defines the ray direction of propagation.…
At present, the theory of light diffraction only has the simple wave-optical approach. In this paper, we study light diffraction with the approach of relativistic quantum theory. We find that the slit length, slit width, slit thickness and…
A key question of quantum optics is how nonclassical bi-photon correlations at low power evolve into classical coherence at high-power. Direct observation of the crossover from quantum to classical behavior is desirable, but difficult due…
The space-time of modern physics is tailored on light. We rigorously construct the basic entities needed by kinematics: geometry of the physical space and time, using as tool electromagnetic waves, and particularly light-rays. After such a…
Schroedinger's equation gave early quantum theory a visual language that looked like physics again: a wave evolving by a linear differential equation. This essay argues that the same success also seeded a recurring impulse to keep quantum…
A critique of the state of current quantum theory in physics is presented, based on a perspective outside the normal physics training. From this perspective, the acceptance of quantum nonlocality seems unwarranted, and the fundamental…
Introductory undergraduate courses in classical physics stress a perspective that can be characterized as realist; from this perspective, all physical properties of a classical system can be simultaneously specified and thus determined at…
It was recently proposed to use the human visual system's ability to perform efficient photon counting in order to devise a new biometric methodology. The relevant biometric fingerprint is represented by the optical losses light suffers…
Quantum optics with quantum gases represents a new field, where the quantum nature of both light and ultracold matter plays equally important role. Only very recently this ultimate quantum limit of light-matter interaction became feasible…
Both magnetic materials and light have always played a predominant role in information technologies, and continue to do so as we move into the realm of quantum technologies. In this course we review the basics of magnetism and quantum…