Ives medal address--Marlan Scully

by Nicole Moore

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Written by Nicole Moore 

I certainly have some reading to do as a follow up to this talk, starting with the paper he recommended: Scovil and Schulz-DuBois, "Three-level masers as heat engines," PRL 2, 262 (1959). 
 
Having recently taught thermal physics and being surprised to discover how much I enjoyed thermodynamics, I am excited by the description of lasers and photocells as heat engines. The efficiency gains he described due to quantum coherence, and in particular noise-induced quantum coherence are of particular interest.

Posted: 15 Oct 2012 by Nicole Moore