Syllabus

• Time-Dependent Quantum Mechanics (Time-Evolution Operator, Two Level System, Interaction Picture, Time-Dependent Perturbation Theory, Density Matrix)
• Interaction of Light with Matter (Electric Dipole Hamiltonian, Absorption and Stimulated Emission, Infrared and Electronic Absorption Lineshape, Raman Scattering)
• Correlation Function Description of Spectroscopy (Correlation Functions, Linear Response Theory, Kramers-Kroenig Relations, Fluctuation-Dissipation Theorem)
• Relaxation (Irreversible relaxation, System-Bath Interaction, Coupling to Nuclear Motion, Master Equation, Bloch Vector Model, Line-Broadening Models)
• Nonlinear Spectroscopy (Nonlinear Response Functions, Density Matrix description, Diagrammatic Perturbation Theory, Wavevector Matching, Resonant and Nonresonant Experiments)

Cohen-Tannoudji, Claude, Bernard Diu, and Franck Laloë. Quantum Mechanics. Vols. 1 and 2. 2nd ed. Paris: Wiley-Interscience, 1977. (Covers many of the topics in the class with a different approach.)

Recommended Texts

McHale, J. L. Molecular Spectroscopy. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999. (This text covers light matter interactions, correlation functions, and various molecular spectroscopies.)

Mukamel, S. Principles of Nonlinear Optical Spectroscopy. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1995. (This is an advanced text that treats quantum dynamics, correlation functions, response functions, coupling of a system to a bath, and nonlinear spectroscopy.)

General References

Baym, G. Lectures on Quantum Mechanics. London: Benjamin/Cummings, 1969.

Blum, K. Density Matrix Theory and Applications. New York: Plenum Press, 1981. (Includes description of density matrix and relaxation.)

Ernst, R. R., G. Bodenhausen, and A. Wokaun. Principles of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance in One and Two Dimensions. New York: Oxford, 1987. (Includes discussion of time-evolution in quantum systems, correlation functions, linear response.)

Fayer, M. D. Elements of Quantum Mechanics. New York: Oxford, 2001.

McQuarrie, D. A. Statistical Mechanics. N.Y.: Harper & Row, 1976. (Useful for correlation function description of spectroscopy.)

Merzbacher, E. Quantum Mechanics. 3rd ed. N.Y.: Wiley, 1998. (General physics text for quantum dynamics, perturbation theory, light matter interactions.)

Slichter, Charles P. Principles of Magnetic Resonance with Examples from Solid State Physics. New York: Harper & Row, 1963. (Useful for discussion of density matrix and relaxation.)

Sakurai, J. J. Modern Quantum Mechanics. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1994.

Jackson, J. D. Classical Electrodynamics. Wiley. (Useful for light-matter interactions. Chapter 6 describes vector and scalar potentials and chapter 7 talks about plane waves.)

Correlation Functions and Linear Response Theory

Berne, B. J. Physical Chemistry: An Advanced Treatise. Vol. VIIIB. Edited by D. Henderson. New York: Academic Press, 1971.

Berne, B. J., and R. Pecora. Dynamic Light Scattering. Malabar, FL: R. E. Krieger Publishing Co., 1990.

Gordon, R. G. Adv. Magn. Reson. 3, 1 (1968).

Wang, C. H. Spectroscopy of Condensed Media: Dynamics of Molecular Interactions. Orlando: Academic Press, 1985.

Zwanzig, R. Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem. 16, 67 (1965).