Classical and Quantum Optics and Their Influences on Science and Society

Abstract

In this work we present a brief history of Optics, begun several centuries BC in its evolution characterized as Classical Optics; later on, this theory became also characterized as Quantum Optics. The first of these two theories was completed in the great work of J. C. Maxwell while the second actually started in 1977 with the discovery of the first quantum effect in Optics, having in Roy Glauber one of its greatest representatives. Here, a quick walk along these two theories was made, including the various technological applications of both in science and society