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Theory and simulations of few-photon Fock state pulses strongly interacting with a single qubit in a waveguide: Exact population dynamics and time-dependent spectra

Sofia Arranz Regidor1,*, Andreas Knorr2, and Stephen Hughes1,†

  • 1Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, K7L 3N6
  • 2Institut für Theoretische Physik, Nichtlineare Optik und Quantenelektronik, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin 10623, Germany

  • *Contact author: 18sar4@queensu.ca
  • †Contact author: shughes@queensu.ca
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 023295 – Published 23 June, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/lp1b-yswm

Abstract

We present a detailed quantum theory and simulations of few-photon Fock state pulses interacting with a two-level system (TLS) in an open waveguide-QED system. For a rectangular pulse shape, we present an exact temporal scattering theory to derive analytical expressions for the TLS population, using one-photon and two-photon pulses, for both chiral and symmetric emitters. We also derive the stationary (long-time) and time-dependent spectra for one-photon excitation, and show how these differ at a fundamental level when considering TLS population effects. Numerically, we also present matrix product state (MPS) simulations, which allow us to compute more general photon correlation functions for arbitrary quantum pulses, and we use this approach to also show results for Gaussian quantum pulses and to confirm the accuracy of our analytical solutions. In the case of a chiral TLS, we show how a one-photon pulse, of any temporal shape, yields a transmitted long-time spectrum that is identical to the input pulse, despite significant TLS population effects. However, the dynamical spectra and spectral intensity show rich population effects, allowing for their detection in spectroscopic experiments. We also show the striking differences between one-photon and two-photon excitation, where the latter shows clear signatures of nonlinear saturation effects. In addition, we demonstrate how significant population TLS dynamics also occur for pulses that are relatively long compared to the radiative decay time (showing that a weak excitation approximation, which neglects finite TLS population effects, cannot be made) and investigate the population signatures, nonlinear features and dynamical behavior as a function of quantum pulse length.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 023295– Published 23 June, 2025
  • Received 8 October 2024
  • Accepted 1 June 2025
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