Contents

1. Basic field quantization - the foundations
  - Recap of classical Electrodynamics
  - Sorting the mess: Count your degrees of freedom
  - The works: Canonical quantization for dummies
  - Realistic boundary conditions: Modes beyond plane waves

2. A silly question: What is a photon?
  - History: The photon of Lewis and Lamb's rage
  - Tying it to energy levels: cavity QED
  - Tying it to the detection processes
  - Tying it to the generation process

3. Parametric down conversion: A common workhorse
  - Optics in media
  - Nonlinear optics: Three wave mixing,
  - Interaction Hamiltonian and connecting it to real hardware
  - Calculating something useful: Absolute pair production rates

4. Quantum information with photons
  - Single photon stuff:
    -- Qubits versus continuous variables
    -- Choose your qubit: polarization, time bin, two rails...
    -- Single photon/qubit operations: Classical optics reloaded
    -- Qubit tomography and the good old Stokes parameters
  - Multi photon stuff:
    -- Entangled photons from atomic cascade transitions and Parametric conversion
    -- Hong-Ou-Mandel Interference
    -- Trying to analyze Bell states

5. Experimental milestones and an outlook
  - Violation of Bell inequalities: How was it done?
  - Quantum Key Distribution: How do people implement BB84?
  - The catchy topic: Quantum teleportation
  - Many photons: Cluster state computing, step 1
  - On the technical side: contemporary waveguide pair sources
  - A new(?) way of looking at photons: Micro-bolometer photodetectors