  Well isolated quantum systems are exquisite sensors of electromagnetic
fields. In this work, we use a single trapped ion for characterizing chirped
ultraviolet (UV) picosecond laser pulses. The frequency swept pulses resonantly
drive a strong dipole transition via rapid adiabatic passage, resulting in near
deterministic population exchange caused by absorption or stimulated emission
of photons. When subjecting an ion to counterpropagating pulse pairs, we
observe the loss and revival of atomic coherence as a function of the pulse
pair spatial overlap enabling quantification of the temporal pulse broadening
caused by a frequency chirp in shaped UV pulses with a very low peak power. We
find good agreement between measured and applied chirp. The ultrafast
population exchange imparts an impulsive force where the estimated change in
the mean phonon numbers of 0.5 is measured for two pairs of pulses. The
resonant ultrafast kicks could be applied to matter wave interferometry
experiments and present a step towards ultrafast entanglement operations in
trapped ions.
