Modeling coherence measurements on a spectrally diffusing single-photon emitter

We examine the possibility of measuring the emission linewidth 2h Gamma(2) of a single-photon source by Michelson interferometry. Such an emitter is characterized by a limited fluorescence intensity and, when embedded in a solid matrix, a large spectral diffusion. We show that fast spectral diffusion renders standard Fourier spectroscopy irrelevant. We then calculate the correlations of the intensities detected at the two interferometer outputs, point out the existence of two-photon interferences (coalescence) even for a non-single-mode emission, and show that the correlations are not affected by spectral diffusion at correlation times shorter than spectral dynamics. This yields two ways to measure the decoherence rate Gamma(2): the recently proposed photon-correlation Fourier spectroscopy, and the study of the coalescence dip. We examine the feasibility and spectral resolution of each method, depending on spectral-diffusion characteristics, and show that both methods could be applied to typical nanometer-sized emitters such as colloidal quantum dots.