Optimally driving multi-photon transitions in the perturbative single-mode regime

Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.05854 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 9 Jan 2026] Title:Optimally driving multi-photon transitions in the perturbative single-mode regime Authors:Frieder Lindel, Stefan Yoshi Buhmann, Andreas Buchleitner, Edoardo G. Carnio View a PDF of the paper titled Optimally driving multi-photon transitions in the perturbative single-mode regime, by Frieder Lindel and 3 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:The rate of $m$-photon transitions in matter, induced by an incident light field, depends on the field's $m$th order coherence function. Consequently, the coherence properties of the light field may be shaped to increase the rate of multi-photon transitions. Here, we determine the optimal state of a weak fixed-intensity, narrow-band incident light field, with a restricted maximal photon number, that optimally drives $m$-photon transitions in the case of a short-lived atomic multilevel system. We show that, in this case, no quantum properties of the light field need to be exploited, but that classical mixtures of coherent states are optimal. Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.05854 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.05854v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.05854 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: Frieder Lindel [view email] [v1] Fri, 9 Jan 2026 15:32:06 UTC (27 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Optimally driving multi-photon transitions in the perturbative single-mode regime, by Frieder Lindel and 3 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)