On the role of chirping in pulsed single photon spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper analyzes how chirping affects the precision of estimating interaction strength in pulsed single-photon spectroscopy, providing theoretical expressions and demonstrating the near-optimality of feasible measurement techniques.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive framework for evaluating the fundamental precision limits in chirped single-photon spectroscopy and identifies optimal measurement strategies.

Findings

Quadratic phase modulation with Gaussian pulses determines precision via spectral bandwidth.

Fundamental precision depends only on spectral amplitude at asymptotic times.

Mode-resolved measurements are nearly optimal for chirped pulsed single-photon spectroscopy.

Abstract

We investigate the precision of estimating the interaction strength between a two-level system (TLS) and a single-photon pulse when the latter is subject to chirping. We consider linear, quadratic, and sinusoidal temporal phases applied to Gaussian and exponential temporal profiles. At the asymptotic time, when the TLS has fully decayed to its ground state, the fundamental precision depends solely on the magnitude of its spectral amplitude. For quadratically phase-modulated Gaussian pulses, this is entirely determined by the spectral bandwidth. We provide expressions for evaluating the fundamental precision for general temporal profiles and phase modulations. Finally, we show that experimentally feasible mode-resolved measurements are optimal, or close to it, for chirped, pulsed single photon spectroscopy.