Available on YouTube

In 1687 (!), Huygens interpreted light as formed of wavelets propagating from point to point and exploring all space.

Although mathematically incorrect, Huygens’s principle introduced the undulatory and delocalized character of light. Later, de Broglie drew on these characteristics of light to hypothesize that matter also had a wave character.

These notions are central to all quantum field theories today.

We will show through a few examples that optics has always been quantum, and that it constitutes an extraordinary field of experiments to explore the quantum world.

Webinar in French.