A wide variety of quantum-optical effects can be understood by analyzing atomic model systems interacting with the quantized light field. Often, one can fully calculate and even measure the quantum-mechanical wave function and its dependence on both the atomic and the light degrees of freedom. By elaborating on and extending this approach, researchers perpetually generate intriguing results and new insights allowing for the exploration and utilization of effects encountered only in the realm of quantum phenomena.

By now, quantum-optical investigations have evolved from atoms all the way to complex systems, such as solids, in particular semiconductors. As a profound conceptual challenge, the optical transitions in semiconductors typically involve an extremely large number of electronic states. Due to their electric charge, the optically active electrons experience strong Coulomb interaction effects. Furthermore, they are coupled to the lattice vibrations of the solid crystal. For such an interacting many-body system, the overwhelmingly large number of degrees of freedom makes it inconceivable to measure the full wave function; we obviously need new strategies to approach semiconductor quantum optics. The combination of quantum-optical and many-body interactions not only leads to prominent modifications of the effects known from atomic systems but also causes new phenomena without atomic counterparts.

In this book, we develop a detailed microscopic theory for the analysis of semiconductor quantum optics. As central themes, we discuss how the quantum-optical approach can be systematically formulated for solids, which new aspects and prospects arise, and which conceptual modifications have to be implemented.