Entangled Two-Photon Absorption Spectroscopy

CONSPECTUS: The application of quantum states of light such as entangled photons, for example, created by parametric down conversion, has experienced tremendous progress in the almost 40 years since their first experimental realization. Initially, they were employed in the investigation of the foundations of quantum physics, such as the violation of Bells inequalities and studies of quantum entanglement. They later emerged as basic platforms for quantum communication protocols and, in the recent experiments on single-photon interactions, in photonic quantum computation. These applications aim at the controlled manipulation of the photonic degrees of freedom, and therefore rely on simple models of matter, where the analysis is simpler. Furthermore, quantum imaging with entangled light can achieve enhanced resolution, and quantum metrology can overcome the shot noise limit for classical light. This Account focuses on an entirely different emerging class of applications using quantum light as a powerful spectroscopic tool to reveal novel information about complex molecules. These applications utilize two appealing properties of quantum light: its distinct intensity fluctuations and its nonclassical bandwidth properties. These give rise to new and surprising behavior of nonlinear optical signals. Nonclassical intensity fluctuations can enhance nonlinear optical signals relative to linear absorption. For instance, the two-photon absorption of entangled photon pairs scales linearly (rather than quadratically) in the photon flux, just like a single photon absorption. This enables nonlinear quantum spectroscopy of photosensitive, for example, biological, samples at low light intensities. We will discuss how the two-photon absorption cross section becomes a function of the photonic quantum state, which can be manipulated by properties of the entangled photon pairs. In addition, the quantum correlations in entangled photon states further influence the nonlinear signals in a variety of ways. Apart from affecting the signals scaling with intensity, they also constitute an entirely new approach to shaping and controlling excitation pathways in molecular aggregates in a way that cannot be achieved with shaped classical pulses. This is because between the two absorption events in entangled two-photon absorption, the light and material system are entangled. Classical constraints for the simultaneous time and frequency resolution can thus be circumvented, since the two are not Fourier conjugates. Here we review the simplest manifestation of quantum light spectroscopy, two-photon absorption spectroscopy with entangled photons. This will allow us to discuss exemplarily the impact of quantum properties of light on a nonlinear optical signal and explore the opportunities for future applications.