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Collecting information previously scattered throughout the literature, this text provides students with one unified guide to contemporary developments in the field. It shows students how atomic physics has played a key role in many other areas of 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.
List of contents
Metrology. Preliminaries. Atoms. Nucleus. Resonance. Interaction. Multiphoton. Coherence. Lineshapes. Spectroscopy. Cooling and Trapping. Appendices. Index.
About the author
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.
Summary
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.
