quantum electronics

quantum electronics [′kwän·təm ‚i‚lek′trän·iks]

(electronics)

The branch of electronics associated with the various energy states of matter, motions within atoms or groups of atoms, and various phenomena in crystals; examples of practical applications include the atomic hydrogen maser and the cesium atomic-beam resonator.

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Quantum electronics

A loosely defined field concerned with the interaction of radiation and matter, particularly those interactions involving quantum energy levels and resonance phenomena, and especially those involving lasers and masers. Quantum electronics encompasses useful devices such as lasers and masers and their practical applications; related phenomena and techniques, such as nonlinear optics and light modulation and detection; and related scientific problems and applications, such as quantum noise processes, laser spectroscopy, picosecond spectroscopy, and laser-induced optical breakdown.

In one sense any electronic device, even one as thoroughly classical in nature as a vacuum tube, may be considered a quantum electronic device, since quantum theory is accepted to be the basic theory underlying all physical devices. In practice, however, quantum electronics is usually understood to refer to only those devices such as lasers and atomic clocks in which stimulated transitions between discrete quantum energy levels are important, together with related devices and physical phenomena which are excited or explored using lasers. Other devices such as transistors or superconducting devices which may be equally quantum-mechanical in nature are not usually included in the domain of quantum electronics. See Laser, Maser, Optical detectors, Optical modulators