1 - A Single Atom

Summary

1. Discuss the Coulomb interaction, the spin-orbit coupling, and the hyperfine coupling as the three effects that determine atomic structure.

2. Highlight the importance of the separation of energy scales of these three effects.

3. Introduce different atomic structures of alkali-metal, alkaline-earth-metal, and magnetic atoms.

4. Introduce the long-lived excited states in alkaline-earth atom and their applications, such as in atomic optical clocks.

5. Discuss the Zeeman structure of atoms in a magnetic field.

6. Discuss the idea of magnetic trapping that can naturally lead to the emergence of a synthetic gauge field.

7. Introduce the scalar light shift and its applications, such as laser trapping, optical lattices, and laser cooling.

8. Introduce the vector light shift and its applications, such as the light-induced Zeeman field and synthetic spin-orbit coupling.

9. Discuss the synthetic spin-orbit coupling and various kinds of gauge fields generated by the vector light shift.

10. Introduce the basic idea of the stimulated Raman adiabatic passage.