Papers written during the last 40 years by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and his collaborators on various physical effects which can be observed on atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields.

This book presents a collection of papers, written during the last 33 years by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and his collaborators, on various physical effects which can be observed on atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields. It consists of a personal selection of review papers, lectures given at schools, as well as original experimental and theoretical papers. Emphasis is put on physical mechanisms and on general approaches, such as the dressed atom approach, having a wide range of applications. Various topics are discussed, such as light shifts, level crossing resonances, multiphoton processes, resonance fluorescence in intense laser fields, photon correlations, quantum jumps, radiative corrections, laser cooling and trapping.This volume includes short introductions by the author. Each paper presented in the volume is preceded by a short commentary giving its motivations, explaining how it fits with the general evolution of the research field, and pointing out connections existing between works done at different periods.

This book collects the lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Atoms in Strong Fields", which took place on the island of Kos, Greece, during the two weeks of October 9-21,1988. The designation "strong field" applies here to an external electromagnetic field that is sufficiently strong to cause highly nonlinear alterations in atomic or molecular struc ture and dynamics. The specific topics treated in this volume fall into two general cater gories, which are those for which strong field effects can be studied in detail in terrestrial laboratories: the dynamics of excited states in static or quasi-static electric and magnetic fields; and the interaction of atoms and molecules with intense laser radiation. In both areas there exist promising opportunities for research of a fundamental nature. An electric field of even a few volts per centimeter can be very strong on the atom ic scale, if it acts upon a weakly bound state. The study of Rydberg states with high reso lution laser spectroscopic techniques has made it possible to follow the transition from weak-field to strong-field behavior in remarkable detail, using static fields of modest lab oratory strength; in the course of this transition the atomic system evolves from one which can be thoroughly understood in terms of field-free quantum numbers, to one which cannot be meaningfully associated at all with the zero-field states of the atom.

This invaluable book presents papers written during the last 40 years by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and his collaborators on various physical effects which can be observed on atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields. It consists of a personal selection of review papers, lectures given at schools, as well as original experimental and theoretical papers. Emphasis is placed on physical mechanisms and on general approaches (such as the dressed atom approach) having a wide range of applications. Various topics are discussed, such as atoms in intense laser fields, photon correlations, quantum jumps, radiative corrections, laser cooling and trapping, BoseOCoEinstein condensation. In this new edition, about 200-page of new material has been added."

A clear and accessible introduction to quantum mechanical methods used to calculate properties of atoms exposed to strong magnetic fields in both laboratory and stellar environments, with the emphasis on hydrogen and helium and their isoelectronic sequences. The results of the detailed calculations are listed in tables, making it a useful handbook for astrophysicists and atomic physicists alike.

This book discusses the interaction of light with atoms, concentrating on the semiclassical descriptions of the processes. It begins by discussing the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation and its interaction with a classical charged dipole oscillator. Then, in a pivotal chapter, the interaction with a free charge is described (the Compton effect); it is shown that, in order to give agreement with observation, certain quantum rules must be introduced. The book then proceeds to discuss the interaction from this point of view-light always being described classically, atoms described quantum-mechanically, with quantum rules for the interaction. Subsequent chapters deal with stimulated emission and absorption, spontaneous emission and decay, the general problem of light stimulating and being scattered from the two-state atom, the photoelectric effect, and photoelectric counting statistics. Finally the author gives a personal view on the nature of light and his own way of looking at certain paradoxes. The writing of this book was originally conceived as a collaboration between the present author and a colleague of former years, Alan V. Durrant. Indeed, some preliminary exchange of ideas took place in the mid-1970s. But the problems of joint-authorship from antipodean positions proved too difficult and the project was abandoned. I would like to record my indebted ness to him for the stimulation of this early association. I also acknowledge the encouragement of my colleagues at the Univer sity of Otago. Special reference must be made to D. M.

Atoms in strong radiation fields are interesting objects for study, and the research field that concerns itself with this study is a comparatively young one. For a long period after the ~scovery of the photoelectric effect. it was not possible to generate electro magnetic fields that did more than perturb the atom only slightly, and (first-or~er) perturbation theory could perfectly explain what was going on at those low intensities. The development of the pulsed laser bas changed this state of affairs in a rather dramatic way, and fields can be applied that really have a large, or even dominant influence on atomic structure. In the latter case, w~ speak of super-intense fields. Since the interaction between atoms and electromagnetic waves is characterized by many parameters other than the light intensity, such as frequency, iQnization potential, orbit time, etc., it is actually quite difficult to define what is exactly meant by the term 'super-intense'. Obviously the term does not have an absolute meaning, and intensity should always be viewed in relation to other properties of the system. An atom in a radiation field can thus best be described in terms of various ratios of the quantities involved. The nature of the system sometimes drastically changes if the value of one of these parameters exceeds a certain critical value, and the new regime could be called super-intense with respect to that parameter.

“The production quality is very high; even the smallest symbols are easily readable, and some papers are reproduced in color. The clarity of the exposition, the wide range of topics, and the logic of the presentation make this a valuable teaching reference. This book is highly recommended for physicists and students working on atoms in intense laser fields, laser cooling and trapping and Bose-Einstein condensation.”Optics & Photonics NewsThis invaluable book presents papers written during the last 40 years by Claude Cohen-Tannoudji and his collaborators on various physical effects which can be observed on atoms interacting with electromagnetic fields. It consists of a personal selection of review papers, lectures given at schools, as well as original experimental and theoretical papers. Emphasis is placed on physical mechanisms and on general approaches (such as the dressed atom approach) having a wide range of applications. Various topics are discussed, such as atoms in intense laser fields, photon correlations, quantum jumps, radiative corrections, laser cooling and trapping, Bose-Einstein condensation. In this new edition, about 200-page of new material has been added.

The interaction between atoms and electromagnetic fields is an area of central importance to the investigation of fundamental concepts of quantum mechanics. The authors provide an introduction to the theory concerning this interaction by describing the different forms of the interaction and dealing with how these interactions lead to the formation of dressed states, in the presence of vacuum fluctuations as well as in the presence of external fields. They also cover the role of dressed atoms in quantum measurement theory and the physical interpretation of vacuum radiative effects. Treating a key field on the boundary between quantum optics and quantum electrodynamics, the book will be of great use to graduate students, as well as to established experimentalists and theorists, in either of these areas.