Quantum Photonics

This book employs a pedagogical approach that facilitates access to the fundamentals of quantum photonics. Beginning with a review of the quantum properties of photons and electrons, this book then introduces the concept of their non-locality at the quantum level. It presents a determination of electronic band structure using the pseudopotential method, enabling the student to directly compute the band structures of most group IV, group III-V, and group II-VI semiconductors. This book devotes further in-depth discussion of second quantization of the electromagnetic field that describes spontaneous and stimulated emission of photons, quantum entanglement and introduces the topic of quantum cascade lasers, showing how electrons and photons interact in a quantum environment to create a practical photonic device.This extensively updated third edition introduces major new material on squeezed states and parametric amplification, offering a unified view of classical and non-classical optics. It presents a novel treatment of squeezed vacuum states, including their experimental detection using optical homodyne techniques, and expands the discussion of coherent states to include a broader class of minimum uncertainty states. This book also addresses foundational questions in quantum photonics—such as wavefunction collapse and tunneling time—that are rarely explored in textbooks, encouraging students to engage with open problems in the field. These additions make the third edition both a scientific and conceptual advancement over previous versions.Pearsall’s Quantum Photonics is supported by numerous numerical calculations that can be repeated by the reader, and every chapter features a reference list of state-of-the art research and a set of exercises. This book is an essential part of any graduate-level course dealing with the theory of nanophotonic devices or computational physics of solid-state quantum devices based on nanoscopic structures.

Thomas Pearsall has a distinguished career in photonic science and technology, where he has made major contributions to fiber-optic telecommunications and silicon photonics. A graduate of Cornell University, he worked in research at Thomson/CSF, and at Bell Labs for nearly two decades. In 1990, Pearsall was named Boeing-Johnson Chair and Professor at the University of Washington. From 1998 to 2002, he directed research on planar photonic crystals at Corning in Fontainebleau, France. Throughout his career, he has invented and developed the semiconductor materials, lasers, LEDs, and photodetectors that are ubiquitous in optical fiber telecommunication networks around the globe. He has also designed and demonstrated key elements of silicon-based photonics, using strained-silicon and silicon-based photonic crystal materials.He is a fellow of the American Physical Society and a fellow of the IEEE.