Photoelectric Detection II

Abstract

In the last four lectures we have reviewed a lot of standard material in quantum optics. In brief we have seen how an operator master equation provides a compact description of a photoemissive source; we have seen how to construct the radiated fields in terms of source operators; and we have seen how the master equation can be analyzed so that we can calculate things like correlation functions for the emitted light. The next two lectures are going to form a bridge between this standard material and the novel formulation of master equation dynamics that will occupy us in the final four lectures. The bridge is built on an understanding of the way in which optical fields are observed. Photoemissive sources are eventually observed by photoelectric detectors. We will spend the next two lectures discussing various aspects of photoelectric detection.