Frequency-filtered photon correlations have been proven to be extremely useful in grasping how the detection process alters photon statistics. Harnessing the spectral correlations also permits refinement of the emission and unraveling of previously hidden strong correlations in a plethora of quantum-optical systems under continuous-wave excitation. In this work, we investigate such correlations for time-dependent excitation and develop a methodology to compute efficiently time-integrated correlations, which are at the heart of the photon-counting theory, and subsequently apply it to analyze the photon emission of pulsed systems. By combining this formalism with the —which facilitates frequency-resolved correlations—we demonstrate how spectral filtering enhances single-photon purity and suppresses multiphoton noise in time-bin-encoded quantum states. Specifically, filtering the central spectral peak of a dynamically driven two-level system boosts temporal coherence and improves the fidelity of time-bin entanglement preparation, even under conditions favoring multiphoton emission. These results establish spectral filtering as a critical tool for tailoring photon statistics in pulsed quantum light sources.
Bermúdez-Feijóo et al. (2025) studied this question.