physics

Quantum Optics & Photonics

The quantum nature of light — photon counting statistics, squeezed states beating the shot-noise limit, cavity quantum electrodynamics, entanglement witnesses, and Hanbury Brown-Twiss intensity correlations.

quantum opticsphoton statisticssqueezed lightcavity QEDentanglementHBT experimentquantum physics

Quantum optics explores light at the level of individual photons, where the classical wave picture breaks down and the discrete, probabilistic nature of electromagnetic radiation emerges. Phenomena like photon antibunching, squeezed vacuum states, and cavity-enhanced atom-photon coupling have no classical analog and lie at the heart of quantum information science.

These simulations let you analyze photon counting distributions, generate squeezed light below the shot-noise limit, explore Jaynes-Cummings dynamics in optical cavities, verify entanglement through witness operators, and reproduce the landmark Hanbury Brown-Twiss experiment — all with real-time interactive controls and physically accurate quantum mechanical models.

5 interactive simulations

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Cavity QED & Jaynes-Cummings Model

Simulate cavity quantum electrodynamics — explore vacuum Rabi oscillations, atom-photon coupling strengths, and the Jaynes-Cummings energy ladder in optical and microwave cavities

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Entanglement Witness & Bell Inequality

Simulate entanglement detection — explore Bell's CHSH inequality, witness operators, and the boundary between classical correlations and quantum entanglement

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Hanbury Brown-Twiss Experiment

Simulate the HBT experiment — explore photon bunching and antibunching by measuring intensity correlations g⁽²⁾(τ) for thermal, coherent, and single-photon sources

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Photon Counting Statistics

Simulate photon number distributions — compare Poissonian (coherent), super-Poissonian (thermal), and sub-Poissonian (quantum) light sources in real time

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Squeezed Light & Quantum Noise

Simulate squeezed states of light — visualize how squeezing reduces quantum noise in one quadrature below the vacuum level at the expense of the conjugate quadrature