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Lecture

Theory of Open Quantum Systems

In course

PHYS-744: Advanced Topics in Quantum Sciences and Technologies

This course provides an in-depth treatment of the latest experimental and theoretical topics in quantum sciences and technologies, including for example quantum sensing, quantum optics, cold atoms, theory of quantum measurements and open dissipative quantu ...

Description

This lecture covers the microscopic derivation of the weak coupling limit and the second-order Born approximation in the context of open quantum systems, emphasizing the interpretation in terms of timescales and environment correlation time.

Instructors (5)

Mayeul Sylvain Chipaux

Jean-Philippe Brantut

I did my PhD at the Institut d'Optique under the direction of Philippe Bouyer and Alain Aspect, before moving to ETHZ in the group of Tilman Esslinger, first as a post-doc then as a senior scientist. There I developed in particular the method allowing for a quantum simulation of nano-electronic devices with ultracold quantum gases.Since september 2016, I hold the Fondation Sandoz chair in physics of quantum gases at EPFL. There, my group has developed the first cold atoms machine combining Fermi gases with cavity-quantum electrodynamics. We use it to explore new ways of measuring and manipulating quantum matter.

Zoë Holmes

Christophe Marcel Georges Galland

I studied at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris (X2003) and received my PhD in 2010 from ETH Zürich for a thesis in solid-state quantum optics with individual carbon nanotubes, in the Quantum Photonics Group of Prof. Ataç Imamoglu. As a postdoctoral researcher at Los Alamos National Lab (USA) I studied the photophysics of individual nanocrystal quantum dots in the groups of Victor Klimov and Han Htoon. I was investigating the mechanisms responsible for fluorescence fluctuations and how to control them. I then moved to the University of Delaware in the group of Michael Hochberg to work in the emerging field of integrated quantum optics. I was leading international projects such as the realisation of an on-chip source of quantum correlated photons integrating optical filters and demultiplexers. From 2013 to 2016, I was working at EPFL in the group of Prof. Kippenberg in the field of quantum optomechanics with an Ambizione Fellowship of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). My work focused on the creation of non-classical vibrational states of mesoscopic oscillators and on the amplification of vibrations in molecules. Since May 2017, I am leading the Laboratory of Quantum and Nano-Optics at EPFL as an SNSF-funded professor in the Institute of Physics. My team investigates two main phenomena: (i) the vibrational dynamics of molecules embedded in nanoscale plasmonic cavities, and (ii) non-classical correlations mediated by individual quanta of crystal vibrations at room-temperature. We employ state-of-the-art spectroscopic tools such as femtosecond lasers and single-photon counters to get new insights into sub-nanometer scale dynamics.

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