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Nobel Lecture: Controlling photons in a box and exploring the quantum to classical boundary*

Serge Haroche
Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1083 – Published 12 July 2013

Abstract

Microwave photons trapped in a superconducting cavity constitute an ideal system to realize some of the thought experiments imagined by the founding fathers of quantum physics. The interaction of these trapped photons with Rydberg atoms crossing the cavity illustrates fundamental aspects of measurement theory. The experiments performed with this “photon box” at Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS) belong to the domain of quantum optics called “cavity quantum electrodynamics.” We have realized the nondestructive counting of photons, the recording of field quantum jumps, the preparation and reconstruction of “Schrödinger cat” states of radiation and the study of their decoherence, which provides a striking illustration of the transition from the quantum to the classical world. These experiments have also led to the demonstration of basic steps in quantum information processing, including the deterministic entanglement of atoms and the realization of quantum gates using atoms and photons as quantum bits. This lecture starts by an introduction stressing the connection between the ENS photon box and the ion-trap experiments of David Wineland, whose accompanying lecture recalls his own contribution to the field of single particle control. I give then a personal account of the early days of cavity quantum electrodynamics before describing the main experiments performed at ENS during the last 20 years and concluding by a discussion comparing our work to other researches dealing with the control of single quantum particles.

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  • Received 9 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.85.1083

© 2013 Nobel Foundation, Published by The American Physical Society

  • *The 2012 Nobel Prize for Physics was shared by Serge Haroche and David J. Wineland. These papers are the text of the address given in conjunction with the award.

Authors & Affiliations

Serge Haroche

  • Laboratoire Kastler Brossel de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75231, Paris, and Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005, Paris, France

Article Text

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Issue

Vol. 85, Iss. 3 — July - September 2013

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