Exciting advances in physics and technology in this century will likely be a result of the precise engineering of quantum states. This includes new applications such as GPS and atomic clocks that are accurate to 1 second in 10 million years or better.  At the same time technologies will advance rapidly, including more quantum effects. Two fundamental areas that form the basis of this technology revolution are atoms and light. In the twentieth century, we learned to manipulate light precisely through the invention of lasers. In the last decade, we have learned to manipulate atoms in a similarly precise way producing Bose Einstein condensates and atom or matter wave lasers. Future technologies will combine these techniques. In this course students will learn about the classical and quantum nature of laser light, the classical and quantum description of atoms and the interactions between the two and the techniques to study these effects in the laboratory. They will study the fundamental models that underpin this active area of research and relate these models to current and future technologies. The concepts and theory developed in lectures will be directly enhanced by laboratory experiments. The laboratory is equipped with state of the art lasers, optics and expert instruction from leading practitioners in the field. This course complements PHYS3057, which focuses on the exciting development of new techniques in contemporary optics.

On satisfying the requirements of this course, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

Assessment will be based on:

• Examinations to benchmark students' understanding of course material via two examinations: the first mid-semester exam will test students grasp of fundamental concepts (LO 1, 2) while the final exam will test their grasp of the applications of fundamental principles (LO 3) (40% in total)
• Weekly assignments, in conjunction with tutorials, to show students understand the techniques required to solve and understand relevant problems (20% in total; LO 1-3)
• Laboratory reports of a closely supervised advanced course: students are led through the design, construction and understanding of a modern atomic physics experiment, and are required to write a report in LaTeX in the form of a journal article on their findings (40%; LO 4) 

A total of 24 lectures, 24 hours laboratory work and 10 tutorial hours.

PHYS3001 and PHYS2016