Signatures of Dynamically Dressed States

The interaction of a resonant light field with a quantum two-level system is of key interest both for fundamental quantum optics and quantum technological applications employing resonant excitation. While emission under resonant continuous-wave excitation has been well studied, the more complex emission spectrum of dynamically dressed states - a quantum two-level system driven by resonant pulsed excitation - has so far been investigated in detail only theoretically. Here, we present the first experimental observation of the complete resonance fluorescence emission spectrum of a single quantum two-level system, in the form of an excitonic transition in a semiconductor quantum dot, driven by finite Gaussian pulses. We observe multiple emerging sidebands as predicted by theory, with an increase of their number and spectral detuning with excitation pulse intensity and a dependence of their spectral shape and intensity on the pulse length. Detuning-dependent measurements provide additional insights into the emission features. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with theoretical calculations of the emission spectra, corroborating our findings.