\chapter{Spectroscopy} \label{cha:spc} \begin{dquote} A hundred years ago, Auguste Comte, … a great philosopher, said that humans will never be able to visit the stars, that we will never know what stars are made out of, that that's the one thing that science will never ever understand, because they're so far away. % And then, just a few years later, scientists took starlight, ran it through a prism, looked at the rainbow coming from the starlight, and said: ``Hydrogen!'' % Just a few years after this very rational, very reasonable, very scientific prediction was made, that we'll never know what stars are made of. % \dsignature{Michio Kaku} \end{dquote} \clearpage %In this chapter I lay out the foundations of spectroscopy as relevant to this dissertation. % %Spectroscopy is the study of the interaction of light (electromagnetic radiation) and matter %(molecules, crystals, solids, liquids etc). % \section{Light-matter interaction} % ============================================================= As scientists, light is perhaps the most useful tool we have for interrogating materials. % Light is relatively easy to create and control, and light-matter interaction tells us a lot about the microscopic physics of the material under investigation. % Spectroscopists use light-matter interaction as an analytical tool. % For the purposes of this document, light can be treated as a classical electromagnetic wave and matter can be treated in the quantum mechanical density matrix formalism. % More complete treatments which also take the quantum-mechanical nature of light into account are possible (see: ``quantum optics'', ``quantum electrodynamics''), but beyond the scope of this dissertation. % This classical treatment still captures the full richness of the wave-nature of light, including interference effects. \cite{HuygensChristiaan1913a} % It merely ignores the quantitization of the electric field---a valid assumption in the limit of many photons. % % TODO: language from 'how a photon is created or destroyed' The basics of light matter interaction have been covered in many texts. % For a beginners introduction I recommend ``How a Photon is Created or Absorbed'' by \textcite{HendersonGiles1994a}. % Here I present a very minimal overview. % Consider a two state system: ``a'' and ``b''. % These two states might be the inital and final states in a transition. % The wavefunction for this system can be written as a sum of the stationary states (eigenstates) with appropriate scaling coefficients: \begin{equation} \Psi(r, t) = c_a(t)\psi_a(r) + c_b(t)\psi_b(r) \end{equation} The time dependence lies in the $c_a$ and $c_b$ coefficients, and the spatial dependence lies in the $\psi_a$ and $\psi_b$ eigienstates. % Now we will expose this two-state system to an electric field: \begin{equation} \label{spc:eqn:E} E = E^{0}\left[ \me^{i(kz-\omega t)} + \me^{-i(kz-\omega t)} \right] \end{equation} For simplicity, we consider a single transition dipole, $\mu$. % The Hamiltonian which controls the coupling of or simple system to the electric field described in \autoref{spc:eqn:E} can be written. % \begin{eqnarray} H &=& H_{0} + \mu \cdot E \\ &=& H_{0} + \mu \cdot \frac{E^0}{2}\left[ \me^{i(kz-\omega t)} + \me^{-i(kz-\omega t)} \right] \end{eqnarray} Solving for the time-dependent coefficients, then: \begin{eqnarray} c_a(t) &=& \cos{\frac{\Omega t}{2}} \me^{-i\omega_at} \\ c_b(5) &=& \sin{\frac{\Omega t}{2}} \me^{-i\omega_bt} \end{eqnarray} Where $\omega_a$ and $\omega_b$ are the fast (and familiar) Bohr frequencies and $\Omega$ is the \emph{Rabi frequency}: % \begin{equation} \Omega \equiv \frac{\mu E^\circ}{\hbar} \end{equation} In Dirac notation \cite{DiracPaulAdrienMaurice1939a}, an observable (such as $\mu(t)$) can be written simply: % \begin{equation} \mu(t) = |c_a(t)|^2 \langle \phi_a | \mu | \phi_a \rangle + |c_b(t)|^2 \langle \phi_b | \mu | \phi_b \rangle + c_a(t) c_b^*(t) \langle \phi_b | \mu | \phi_a \rangle + c_b(t) c_a^*(t) \langle \phi_a | \mu | \phi_b \rangle \end{equation} The complex wavefunction is called a \emph{ket}, represented $\left|b\right>$. % The complex conjugate is called a \emph{bra}, represented $\left