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Haroche Experiment
Nondestructive Counting of Photons

Biographical facts about Serge Haroche: Genealogy, family and career.
The Einstein box: A thought-experiment discussed by Einstein and Bohr.
Micromaser: A closed cavity doesn't require perfect mirrors.
Purcell effect: Enhancement of spontaneous fluorescence in a cavity.
Quantum nondemolition measurements (QND) are almost classical.
Circular Rydberg atom. The outer electron is in orbit at a large distance.
Rydberg clock: Two superposed Rydberg states look like a rotating dipole.
Jaynes-Cummings model (1963): 2-level atom in an optical cavity.
Fabry-Pérot cavity.
Superconductivity of Niobium.
Fock basis. Quantum states where the number of photons is well-defined.
The electromagnetic phase is the conjugate of the number of photons.
Coherent states in electromagnetism (Roy J. Glauber, 1963).
Light-shift effect (Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, 1961).
Rabi escillations at 50 kHz (I.I. Rabi).
Ramsey Interferometer (Norman Ramsey, 1949).
Circuit QED. A solid-state counterpart of Cavity QED.
Questions and Answers. Discussions related to the Haroche experiments.

Related Links (Outside this Site)

Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (LKB) > Information et Optique Quantique > cqed.org > Serge Haroche
Sorbonne Universités > Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC) > Research > Serge Haroche
PSL | Pinterest | France Culture > Dernières publications sur Serge Haroche

"Atome habillé" (Haroche, 1967-1971) by Bernard Cagnac (Universalis).
Serge Haroche, Ph.D. - Publications Academic Tree (1975-2015).
16 thèses dirigées par Serge Haroche (1988-2015).
Nobel Lab 360° Serge Haroche.

Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics by S. Haroche and D. Kleppner (1989).
Cavity QED S. Haroche, J-M Raimond (Scientific American, April 1993).
Death of a Photon... Live by Claire Le Poulennec (CNRS, July 2007).
Serge Haroche: Photon Tamer (2009 CNRS Gold Medal) by Emilie Badin.
Serge Haroche: Héritier des prix Nobel français (Laurent Sacco, 2009-06-19)
Serge Haroche on Quantum Optics. Interview by Emmanuelle Manck (2009).
Interview with Serge Haroche (Centre for Quantum Technologies, 2012).

2012 Nobel Prize in physics (Reuters, 2012-10-09).
Nobel 2012: Secret Life of Atoms by Dennis Overbye (NYT, 2012-10-09).
Haroche and Wineland Win Nobel in Physics (The Guardian, 2012-10-09).
Nobel de physique 2012 Cyrille Vanlerberghe (Le Figaro, 2012-10-09).
Serge Haroche, l'attrape-photons (Sciences & Avenir, 2012-10-11).
Quantum Computing Wins a Nobel by Joshua Rothman (2012-10-12).
Tools for Quantum Tinkering: 2012 Nobel Prize (APS, 2012-10-12).
Implications for quantum computing and security. (Mocana, 2012-10-16).
Secrets of my prizewinning research by S. Haroche (Nature, 2012-10-17).
One step closer to the quantum future by Marcelo Gleiser (NPR, 2012-10-17).
Serge Haroche, Prix Nobel de Physique 2012 Michel Brune (F2S, 2012-12).
Nobel Work: Congratulations (Joint Quantum Institute, 2012-12-17).
Transcript of Serge Haroche's Nobel lecture (Rev. Mod. Phys. 85, 1083).

Zürich Physics Colloquium with Andreas Wallraff (ETH Zürich, 2013-11-06).
Confined quantum Zeno dynamics of a watched atomic arrow (Nature, 2014).
Serge Haroche: Public Lectures at UBC (CGF Vancouver, April-May 2015).
Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (UBC Vancouver, 2015).
Thought Experiments Made Real Raimond & Brune (CDF, 2015-10-29).
International Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science (November 2015).
Exceptional Conference in Mulhouse by Serge Haroche (EPS, June 2016).
Putting Light in a Box: Haroche's Nobel Prize Winning Idea (2016-10-19).
French Nobel Laureate Serge Haroche's visit to India. Institut Français (2017-01-17).
Jongler avec les atomes et les photons. Transcript by C. Larcher (2017-02-28).
Serge Haroche: How I got there by Lan Anh Vu (Huffpost, 2017-03-17).
Serge Haroche ConCiencia (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2017-07-19).
Serge Haroche: Festival de Ciencia (Puerto de Ideas, 2018-04).
L'effort sur la science a trop ralenti! Serge Haroche (Les Echos, 2021-05-24).

Serge Haroche (b.1944; ENS 1963) | Jean-Michel Raimond (b.1955; ENS 1975) | Michel Brune (ENS 1983)

Wikipedia : Cavity QED | Quantum optics | Quantum information

ISBN 0-19-850914-6 Exploring the Quantum: Atoms, Cavities and Photons
by Serge Haroche and Jean-Michel Raimond (Oxford Graduate Texts, 2006).

Videos : Serge Haroche, premier à l'X, troisième à Ulm (1963-12-06).
La physique quantique (1:12:08) by Serge Haroche (UTLS, 2000-07-31).
Leçon inaugurale de Serge Haroche au Collège de France (2001-12-13).
Serge Haroche, un arpenteur du monde quantique (2009).
Electrodynamique quantique en cavité Serge Haroche (SFP, Bordeaux 2011).
Quantum Feedback Control Serge Haroche (Nordita Colloquium, 2011-10-18).

Official Presentation of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physics (2012-10-09).
Announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics by Brady Haran (2012-10-09).
How do we see light? Minute Physics by Henry Reich (2012-10-09).
Telephone interview by Adam Smith (nobelprize.org, 2012-10-10).
Serge Haroche, Prix Nobel de physique by Paul Indélicato (2012-10-11).
Serge Haroche, Prix Nobel de physique 2012 (France-Inter, 2012-10-11).
L'étrangeté quantique: Serge Haroche (Collège de France, Dec. 2012).
Nobel Lecture by Serge Haroche (2012-12-08).
Nobel Lecture at Uppsala University (2012-12-13).

"L'enseignement et la recherche" by Serge Haroche (2013-01-14).
Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings: Serge Haroche videos (2013, 2015, 2016).
Public Lecture and Q & A by Serge Haroche (IQC, May 2013).
Studies of decoherence by Serge Haroche (IQC, May 2013).
La physique quantique 100 ans après Bohr (1:40:31) Cité (Oct. 2013).
Conférence de Serge Haroche à l'Ecole Polytechnique (2014-03-27).
Shedding new light on Schrödinger's cat (Schrödinger Lecture 2014, ICL).
Le chat de Schrödinger sous un nouvel éclairage. (ESPCI, 2015-01-15).
Light and the Quantum: Opening ceremony, 2015 International Year of Light.
Chats de Schrödinger et décohérence. Jean-Michel Raimond (2015-01-29).
Contrôle non-destructif de photons en cavité. Serge Haroche (IHES, 2015-01-29).
Septième Tables Rondes de l'Arbois (Aix-en-Provence, March 2015).
Light and the Quantum Serge Haroche (The Royal Institution, Nov. 2015).
Fifty Years of Revolutions in Laser Physics Serge Haroche (CityU, 2015-11).
La lumière invisible by Serge Haroche (end of IYL in France, Dec. 2015).
Serge Haroche at Bar-Ilan University (Doctor Honoris Causa, 2016-06-07).
Serge Haroche et la boîte à photons (in French) Arte (2016-07-05).
Message of Serge Haroche to Korean students (KTN, 2016-09-20).
Light-filled box. Animation with the voice of Serge Haroche (2016-09-26).
10 ans de La Tête au Carré: Le complotisme ambiant (2016-11-30).
Power & Strangeness of the Quantum (+ Part 2) by S. Haroche (ISC 2017).
Jongler avec des atomes et des photons by Serge Haroche (2017-02-28).
Puissance et étrangeté de la physique quantique (1:31:43) IPR (2018-01-30).

Serge Haroche at Sahyadri Conclave 2018:

2018-01-07 09:00 [ 1 | 2 ] Controlling a single photon in a box.
2018-01-07 14:00 [ 1 | 2 ] Walk the Talk.
2018-01-08 11:30 [ 1 | 2 ] How the laser has revolutionized physics.
2018-01-08 14:00 [ 1 | 2 ] Light, matter & water.

Serge Haroche visits ALMA antennas (Atacama Large Millimiter Array, 2018-04-23).
Serge Haroche & David J. Wineland (69th Lindau meeting, 2019-07-03).

2015
International
Year of Light
and
Light-Based Technologies

Counting Photons without Destroying Them
A review of the components of the Haroche experiment at ENS.

(2017-06-14) Genealogy, career and personal life of Serge Haroche :

Family Roots :

Serge Haroche was born on 11 September 1944, in Casablanca, to a Sephardic father and a Russian-born Ashkenazic mother.

His father : Albert Haroche (1920-1998) was a Rabat-trained lawyer whose parents both worked as teachers at various schools of the Alliance Israélite (AIU) network. They ended up heading the AIU boys' school and girls' school, respectively, in Salé (across the river from Rabat) where Albert was one of their seven children. Both parents had been students at the AIU in their respective hometowns.
- Isaac Haroche (1890-1962) was born in Marrakesh. to the Harrosh family of Marrakesh, descendants of Sephardim expelled from Spain by the Alhambra Decree of 1492.
- Esther Azerad (1893-1968) was raised in Tétouan where she attended the first AIU school, founded there in 1862.
His mother : Valentine Roublev (1921-1998) was born in Odessa to a family of physicians who left Ukraine in the early 1920s. They relocated to Casablanca because their Russian medical degrees were recognized in Morocco. Valentine met Albert Haroche in Rabat as she was studying to become a teacher of French and German literature. (In Rabat, the Institute of Letters was created in 1912, the Institude of Law was created in 1920.) At first, Serge Haroche was home-schooled by his mother in French and Russian. He lost his Russian fluency when he started attending elementary school at the age of 6. The maternal grandparents of Serge Haroche were:
- Alexandre Roublev (1897-1984). Apparently, he eventually left Morocco and relocated to the United States, obtaining a medical degree from Columbia in 1958.
- Sophie Roublev, née Fromstein (1896-1977).

Albert and Valentine Haroche had 5 children. One died in infancy:

Joël Haroche

Georges Haroche (1942-1943).
Serge Haroche our subject (b.1944, in Casablanca).
Joël Haroche (b. 1948) a.k.a. Josh Harel. Lawyer, author. He is the father of the pop singer Raphaël (born 1975-11-07).
Gilles Haroche Born in Casablanca (1951-09-20). Physician:
Interne des hôpitaux de Paris in 1976. After earning his doctorate in 1982, Gilles was named chef de clinique in the infectious-disease service of Pr. Christian Lafaix (c.1934-2015) at the CHI of Villeneuve-Saint-Georges (CHIV) where he became an AIDS specialist.

In 1979, with the help of his brother Joël, Gilles Haroche founded the Journal international de médecine, offering translations of medical articles from major journals (JIM, 1979-1998, 398 issues). In 1985, he created Abstracts de spécialités, providing French translations of abstracts of articles in nine different medical specialties. In 1995, he started publishing a medical magazine for the general public: Univers Santé. His publishing group (Valdemars publications) was sold to Impact Médecin in 1999. Gilles Haroche retained only the online version of JIM.
Michel Haroche, born in Paris (1959-2009).

Since 1965, Serge Haroche has been married to the sociologist Claudine Haroche (née Zeligson) whose parents were married in 1936:

[Louis] Casimir Zeligson was a successful architect.
Raymonde Zelligson (née Sandberg) passed away in 2008.

Serge and Claudine had been playmates as kids from the Jewish community of Russian émigrés in Casablanca (so was Serge's younger brother Joël). They drifted apart for 15 years before meeting again in Paris, by chance, in the Spring of 1964. They have two grown children:

A son, Julien Haroche (b. 1970).
A physician educated at Paris Descartes University (1987-2002) Julien Haroche is professor of internal medicine in the service directed by Zahir Amoura (b. 1962) at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital (Paris XIII). The research interests of Julien Haroche include the rare Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD).
A daughter, Judith Haroche (b. 1972). A lawyer who married Thomas Peugeot (b. 1968) in 2010. They have two children:
- Rachel Peugeot.
- Elsa Peugeot.

Early Life :

Like many French-educated Jewish families from Morocco, the parents of Serge Haroche relocated to France in 1956, at the end of the French protectorate in Morocco. Three of their sons (Serge, Joël, Gilles) were born in Morocco. The fourth one (Michel) was born in Paris, in 1959.

Serge Haroche received his secondary education at the Lycée Carnot (Baccalauréat in 1961). Then he spent two years of classes préparatoires (Maths Sup, Maths Spé) at the prestigious Lycée Louis-le-Grand. In the Summer of 1963, Serge Haroche ranked first in the Polytechnique entrance contest and third for ENS, which he chose to enter. From 1963 to 1967, Haroche was an ENS student in Paris, attending lectures by the likes of Alfred Kastler (1902-1984; Nobel 1966) and Claude Cohen-Tanoudji (b. 1933; Nobel 1997), his future doctoral adviser.

He graduated in 1967 with an Agrégation and Doctorat de troisième cycle.

Career :

In 1971, Serge Haroche earned a doctorate from Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC, Paris VI) under Claude Cohen-Tannoudji. His doctoral examining committee was stellar. It consisted of:

Alfred Kastler (1902-1984; Nobel 1966).
Anatole Abragam (1914-2011).
Jean Brossel (1918-2003).
Claude Cohen-Tanoudji (b. 1933; Nobel 1997),

In 1972-1973, Haroche was a post-doc in the lab of Art Schawlow (1921-1999; Nobel 1981) at Stanford.

From 1974 to 1984, Haroche taught Quantum Mechanics at Polytechnique (where, incidentally, the author was a student of his, in the Fall of 1977).

Serge Haroche was full professor at Paris VI (UPMC) from 1975 to 2001 and head of the Physics department at the Ecole Normale Supérieure from 1994 to 2000.

He held the chair of Quantum Mechanics at the Collège de France from 2001 to 2015. Shortly before receiving the Nobel Prize in 2012, he was elected Administrator of the Collège de France, for a 3-year term.

In 2013, Serge Haroche became a Commander in the French Legion of Honor. He was nominated Grand Officer on 14 july 2017 (to take effect at a ceremony to be scheduled by himself, within two years).

Haroche is a member of the French Académie des sciences and a Foreign Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.

Origines et généalogie de Serge Haroche, prix Nobel de physique by Jean-Louis Beaucarnot (2012-10-09)
Descendants of Albert Haroche | Haroche Family Tree by Randy Schoenberg. | Namespedia

CV 2011 | Autobiography of Serge Haroche (The Nobel Foundation, 2012) | Wikipedia

(2015-08-30) Weighing a Box of Photons (1930) A paradox devised by Einstein and solved by Niels Bohr.

In 1930, Einstein proposed a thought-experiment which seemed to refute the uncertainty principle applied to time and energy. The very foundations of Quantum Theory were threatened...

At left is Bohr's own depiction of the apparatus that the Einstein experiment would involve. The box is supposed to trap photons indefinitely with perfectly reflective walls.

Einstein argued that a shutter can be opened for an arbitrarily small amount of time Dt measured by the attached clock.

As the energy of the closed box can be determined with arbitrary precision by weighing it over long periods of time, so can the difference DE corresponding to light released at a time t known with the aforementioned arbitrarily small precision Dt.

DE = ( M₀ - M₁) c²

After a sleepless night, Bohr discovered the fallacy in Einstein's argument using, ironically, Einstein's own General Theory of Relativity: