Optically Polarized Atoms Understanding light-atom interactions [Hardcover]

Optically Polarized Atomsis addressed at upper-level undergraduate and graduate students involved in research in atomic, molecular, and optical Physics. It will also be useful to researchers practicing in this field. It gives an intuitive, yet sufficiently detailed and rigorous introduction to light-atom interactions with a particular emphasis on the symmetry aspects of the interaction, especially those associated with the angular momentum of atoms and light. The book will enable readers to carry out practical calculations on their own, and is richly illustrated with examples drawn from current research topics, such as resonant nonlinear magneto-optical effects. The book comes with a software package for a variety of atomic-physics calculations and further interactive examples that is freely downloadable from the book's web page, as well as additional materials (such as power-point presentations) available to instructors who adopt the text for their courses.

I: INTRODUCTION TO LIGHT-ATOM INTERACTIONS
1. Introduction
2. Atomic States
3. A bit of angular-momentum theory
4. Atoms in external electric and magnetic fields
5. Polarized atoms
6. Polarized light
7. Atomic transitions
8. Coherence in atomic systems
9. Optical pumping
10. Light-atom interaction observed in transmitted light
II: ADVANCED TOPICS
11. Nonlinear magneto-optical rotation
12. Perturbative analysis of light-atom interactions
13. Polarization effects in transitions with partially resolved hyperfine structure
14. The effect of hyperfine splitting on nonlinear magneto-optical rotation
15. Spectral properties of excitation light; ground-state coherence effects revisited
16. Collapse and revival in quantum beats
17. Nuclear quadrupole resonance and alignment-to-orientation conversion
18. Selective addressing of high-rank polarization moments
19. Tensor structure of the DC- and AC-Stark polarizabil3J