Quantum Mechanics in the Single Photon Laboratory

Arising from a series of laboratory class experiments developed by the authors, this book provides an overview of fundamental experiments that can be used to practically demonstrate the underlying principles of quantum physics and quantum information science. Designed with multiple readerships in mind, it will be essential for the professor who would like to recreate a similar suite of experiments for their students as well as students of physics, who would like to learn how such experiments are conducted. Computer scientists, photonics engineers and electrical engineers who would like to foray into quantum technologies would also find this narrative useful to learn about the terminology, key postulates of quantum physics, the collapse of states on measurement and how quantum computers could be implemented.

Key Features

• Accompanied by downloadable code and data from real experiments for readers to manipulate, plot and compute expectation values, errors and density matrices.
• Includes worked examples demonstrating basic calculations on computing probabilities from projective measurements, effect of unitary operators on states, computing density matrices, and expectation values, fidelities and purities.
• Features end-of-chapter problems
• Incorporates overviews and learning objectives for each chapter
• Essential reading for students of quantum physics and modern optics