Third-order frequency-resolved photon correlations in resonance fluorescence

Recently, the concept of an ''$N$-photon spectrum'' -- a spectrally resolved $N$-photon correlation function -- has been introduced as an innovative quantum optics characterization tool that uniquely reveals information about pathways underlying the generation of light in a given source. Here, the authors investigate experimentally the three-photon spectrum of resonance fluorescence from a single semiconductor quantum dot. The observations agree with previous theoretical work, revealing significantly more pronounced photon antibunching at the Mollow triplet sidebands and more strongly correlated emission through virtual states compared to the two-photon counterpart.