CCLI-Phase I: Quantum Optics Laboratory for the Undergraduate Curriculum - Teaching Quantum Mechanics with Photon Counting Instrumentation

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Physics (13). This project is an interdisciplinary Quantum Optics Laboratory for the Science/Engineering Undergraduate Curriculum. It leverages the resources of current teaching laboratories of the Institute of Optics, Department of Physics & Astronomy, and the Center for Quantum Information. It creates experiments and supporting materials that help students better understand the superposition, interference, wave-particle duality, and nonlocality principle in quantum mechanics. It provides a modern view using the instrumentation of quantum-information technology. Major teaching experiments include (1) entanglement and Bell's inequalities; (2) single-photon interference; and (3) single-photon source. Photonic based quantum computing, quantum cryptography, and quantum teleportation are outlined in the course text-books as possible applications of photonic quantum mechanics. The project includes faculty from a community college that provides a two-year degree program for training technicians to work in the optical industry. Both formative and summative evaluation methods are used in project assessment with evaluation coordinated by a faculty member of the graduate School of Education. Intellectual merit: The project addresses one of the most challenging concepts of modern physics in science and engineering education that is now being applied to important technological problems and familiarizes the future workforce with these new ideas as well as provides them with hands-on experience in photon-counting instrumentation currently widely used in many technological areas. Broader impact: The project directly impacts a group of students with diverse backgrounds and is disseminated with similar course instructors from other universities, in educational journals, by student publication and presentations, an interactive workshop, and a book on quantum-optics teaching experiments.