Hook-and-Loop laser fastening of an optical frequency comb to a strongly driven two-level quantum system

Abstract

In order to control the state of a two-level quantum system (e.g. the spin state of an ion qubit), optical frequency combs perform a two-photon stimulated Raman process through stimulated absorption from one comb tooth and stimulated emission into another comb tooth. If the two-level energy gap is an integer multiple of the repetition rate of the laser, resonant Rabi oscillations are excited. When these latter have a frequency close to the qubit’s transition one, a strongly anharmonic phase-locked cycle may exist on the Bloch sphere, which generates a sub-harmonic series of very narrow, equally spaced, spectral lines. If the repetition rate of an optical frequency comb is appropriately tuned to these latter (up to the average carrier envelope frequency), a highly resonant dynamical regime of the two-level system should be reached where the Raman stimulated absorption and emission processes would occur for any pair of adjacent comb teeth.