Interferometric spectroscopy with quantum light: Revealing out-of-time-ordering correlators

We survey the inclusion of interferometric elements in nonlinear spectroscopy performed with quantum light. Controlled interference of electromagnetic fields coupled to matter can induce constructive or destructive contributions of microscopic coupling sequences (histories) of matter. Since quantum fields do not commute, quantum light signals are sensitive to the order of light–matter coupling sequences. Matter correlation functions are thus imprinted by different field factors, which depend on that order. We identify the associated quantum information obtained by controlling the weights of different contributing pathways and offer several experimental schemes for recovering it. Nonlinear quantum response functions include out-of-time-ordering matter correlators (OTOCs), which reveal how perturbations spread throughout a quantum system (information scrambling). Their effect becomes most notable when using ultrafast pulse sequences with respect to the path difference induced by the interferometer. OTOCs appear in quantum-informatics studies in other fields, including black hole, high energy, and condensed matter physics.