1. Introduction
2. Review
· Coherent Rabi-oscillations of 2-level atoms, dressed states
· Second quantization of the EM field
· Black body radiation, semi classical treatment of stimulated emission
3. Coupling to vacuum
· Spontaneous emission, Fluorescence spectroscopy
· Quantum jumps
4. Interaction of light and 2-level atom
· Optical Bloch equations, decoherence and dephasing
· Rabi and Ramsey and echo spectroscopy
· Saturation spectroscopy
· Propagation effects: Bloch-Maxwell equations
5. Principles of laser operation
· Rate equations, power in laser operation
· Specific laser systems
6. Laser cooling and trapping
· Radiation pressure and dipole forces
· Cooling and heating forces, laser cooling
· Optical dipole traps
7. Multi-level atoms
· Cooling and trapping of multi-level atoms
· Dark states – stimulated rapid adiabatic passage (STIRAP)
· Electromagnetically induced transparency, slow light
8. Interaction of light with Rydberg atoms
· Rydberg blockade
· Nonlinear optical response on the few-photon level