The fluorescence of a single dipole excited by an intense light pulse can lead to the generation of another light pulse containing a single photon. The influence of the duration and energy of the excitation pulse on the number of photons in the fluorescence pulse is studied. The case of a two-level dipole with strongly damped coherences is considered. The presence of a metastable state leading to shelving is also investigated.
@article{arxiv.quant-ph/0007037,
title = {Single photon generation by pulsed excitation of a single dipole},
author = {Rosa Brouri and Alexios Beveratos and Jean-Philippe Poizat and Philippe Grangier},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:quant-ph/0007037},
year = {2009}
}