Course teached as: B024431 - ATOMI, MOLECOLE E FOTONI Second Cycle Degree in PHYSICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL SCIENCES Curriculum FISICA TEORICA
Teaching Language
Italian
Course Content
Atomic and molecular structure and spectra. Interaction of atoms and light with electromagnetic fields. Atomic laser spectroscopy. Introduction to themes of contemporary atomic molecular and optical physics.
- G.M. Tino, “Fisica Atomica-Lezioni all’Università di Firenze”.
I) Struttura e spettri atomici
- B.H. Bransden, C.J. Joachain, Physics of Atoms and Molecules, Prentice Hall, 2003.
- C.J. Foot, "Atomic Physics", Oxford University Press, 2005
- H.G. Kuhn, "Atomic Spectra", Longmans, 1969.
- G.K. Woodgate, "Elementary atomic structure", Mc Graw Hill, 1970.
- C. Cohen-Tannoudji, B. Diu, F. Laloe, "Quantum Mechanics, Vol. II", 1977.
II) Fisica molecolare
- B.H. Bransden, C.J. Joachain, Physics of Atoms and Molecules, Prentice Hall, 2003.
- Peter William Atkins Roland S Friedman, Meccanica quantistica molecolare, Zanichelli, 2000.
III) I fotoni e l'interazione con atomi e molecole
- C. Cohen-Tannoudji, D. Guery-Odelin, Advances in Atomic Physics: An Overview, World Scientific, 2011.
- G. Grynberg, A. Aspect, C. Fabre, "Introduction to Quantum Optics", Cambridge Un. Press, 2010.
- P. Meystre, M. Sargent, "Elements of Quantum Optics", 3 ed., 1999.
- M. Sargent, M.O. Scully, W.E. Lamb, "Laser Physics", Addison Wesley, 1974.
- R. Loudon, "The quantum theory of light", 2 ed., Clarendon Press, 1983.
- M.O. Scully, M.S. Zubairy, "Quantum Optics", Cambridge Un. Press, 1997.
IV) Spettroscopia atomica con radiazione laser
- A. Corney, "Atomic and Laser Spectroscopy", 1977.
- W. Demtroeder, "Laser Spectroscopy", Springer Verlag, 1996.
V) Fisica con atomi ultrafreddi
- L. Fallani, M. Inguscio, Atomic Physics: Precise Measurements and Ultracold Matter, Oxford University Press, 2013.
- C. Cohen-Tannoudji, D. Guery-Odelin, Advances in Atomic Physics: An Overview, World Scientific, 2011.
- G.M. Tino, M. Inguscio, "Fisica Atomica", in Enciclopedia Treccani, 2000.
- G.M. Tino, M. Inguscio, "Experiments on Bose-Einstein condensation", La Rivista Nuovo Cimento, 1999.
- N. Poli, C. W. Oates, P. Gill, G. M. Tino, "Optical Atomic Clocks", La Rivista del Nuovo Cimento, 12, 555-624 (2013) (https://arxiv.org/abs/1401.2378)
- A. D. Cronin, J. Schmiedmayer, and D. E. Pritchard, "Optics and interferometry with atoms and molecules", Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, 1051 (2009).
Learning Objectives
The course aims to provide a basic background in the area of atomic and molecular physics. By the end of the course, the student will have acquired sufficient subject knowledge to take more specialized courses in the area of the Physics of Matter and to understand the applications of spectroscopy and light-matter interaction techniques in other fields of Physics.
Prerequisites
A basic background in General Physics and Quantum Mechanics, at the level of that provided in a three-year course of study in Physics, is required.
Teaching Methods
The Course will be delivered with frontal lectures, in which the lecturer will illustrate the topics mainly by making use of blackboard. During the lectures, slides with notable examples or significant results in the field of atomic and molecular spectroscopy will also be shown, stimulating students to give an interpretation of the proposed phenomena.
All course materials (notes and slides shown during lectures) will be made available on the Moodle e-learning platform.
Further information
Type of Assessment
Oral exam. The student will be required to expound and discuss 2-3 specific topics in the program. The student will be expected to use appropriate language demonstrating understanding of the main physical processes, and how the starting assumptions determine the final results. More specific questions may be asked during the exposition of topics to better determine the student's level of understanding. The student should be able to do simple calculations to orders of magnitude but also fully develop the mathematical model where it has been presented in class.
Course program
Introduction to the course. Topics in current atomic and molecular physics.
Hydrogen atom: spectrum; Bohr model; Schroedinger equation, eigenstates and eigenvalues. Dirac equation, solution at order (v/c)^2 for the hydrogen atom. Fine structure of the hydrogen atom levels. Lamb shift: Lamb and Retherford experiment and Welton model.
Multi-electron atoms: LS coupling, jj coupling, Jl coupling.
Hyperfine structure. Isotopic shift.
Selection rules for electric dipole, magnetic dipole, electric quadrupole transitions.
Two-level system in the presence of a perturbation. Description of effects with Bloch vector: pi pulse, pi/2, Ramsey scheme.
Zeeman effect, Paschen Back effect. Zeeman effect in intermediate fields. Relative intensities for transitions between different Zeeman components. Discussion of Brossel-Bitter double resonance experiment.
Notes on Stark effect and quenching.
Hydrogen spectroscopy and muonic hydrogen; recent experiments. Atomic levels and spectra. Grotrian diagrams.
Molecular structure. Solution of eigenvalue problem in adiabatic approximation (Born-Oppeneimer separation of electronic and nuclear motion). Electronic structure of
diatomic molecules, symmetries and notations of molecular electronic terms. Examples: hydrogen molecule H2 valence method (Heitler-London).
H2+ molecule. Molecular orbitals. Bonds. Hybrid orbitals.
Rotational and roto-vibrational spectrum of diatomic molecules. Dipole moment.
Molecules: Electronic transitions and Franck-Condon principle; Raman transitions; fluorescence and phosphorescence; photodissociation and photoassociation; effect of nuclear spin in the spectrum of O2 and H2 meolecules; ammonia molecule.
The photon: e.m. field quantization; Fock states; localized photons; coherent states; single photon generation; beam splitter; interferometer; single-photon homodyne experiment; nonlocalities.
Luminous shift of levels and dressed states.
Autler-Townes effect. Spontaneous emission as a cascade of photons: antibunching, Mollow triplet, time correlations.
Density operator. Density matrix. Decay effects.
Vector model and optical Bloch equations. Description of effects with Bloch vector: pi pulse, pi/2, adiabatic inversion, photon-echo. Ramsey's method. Atomic clocks. Atomic interferometry. 2-level system with stable lower state: stationary solution of Bloch equations.
3-level systems. Gozzini experiment on black line. Coherence and interference effects. Coherent trapping and dark states. Gain and laser without inversion. Induced transparency (EIT). Group velocity for a light pulse in a medium.
Two-photon transitions, two-photon Doppler-free spectroscopy. Raman Transitions.
Broadening of spectral lines. Sub-Doppler spectroscopy patterns. Saturation spectroscopy. Polarization spectroscopy. Two-photon spectroscopy. Experiments on the 1s-2s transition of hydrogen. Muonic hydrogen spectroscopy.
Slowing down of an atomic beam with laser radiation. Optical melasses: principle and Doppler temperature limit. Sub-Doppler cooling. Sub-recoil cooling. Magneto-optical confinement. Optical trapping. Magnetic trapping and evaporative cooling.
Atomic physics experiments: Bose-Einstein condensation and Fermi gas; Atomic fountain; Atomic interferometer and gravity measurements; Optical atomic clock; Entanglement and squeezing.