A superatom picture of collective nonclassical light emission and dipole blockade in atom arrays

Abstract

We show that two-time, second-order correlations of scattered photons from planar arrays and chains of atoms display nonclassical features that can be described by a superatom picture of the canonical single-atom $g_2(\tau )$ resonance fluorescence result. For the superatom, the single-atom linewidth is replaced by the linewidth of the underlying collective low light-intensity eigenmode. Strong light-induced dipole-dipole interactions lead to a correlated response, suppressed joint photon detection events, and dipole blockade that inhibits multiple excitations of the collective atomic state. For targeted subradiant modes, nonclassical nature of emitted light can be dramatically enhanced even compared with that of a single atom.

4 pages + refs, 4 figures

References in corpus (7)

• Observation of mesoscopic crystalline structures in a two-dimensional Rydberg gas
• Storing light with subradiant correlations in arrays of atoms
• Subradiant Bell states in distant atomic arrays
• Collective shift in resonant light scattering by a one-dimensional atomic chain
• Photon blockade with ground-state neutral atoms
• Transmission of near-resonant light through a dense slab of cold atoms
• Cooperative Emission of a Coherent Superflash of Light

Cited by in corpus (7)

• Photon blockade with ground-state neutral atoms
• Cooperative quantum-optical planar arrays of atoms
• Cooperative optical wavefront engineering with atomic arrays
• Bistable optical transmission through arrays of atoms in free space
• Optimized geometries for cooperative photon storage in an impurity coupled to a two-dimensional atomic array
• Parity-time symmetry and coherent perfect absorption in a cooperative atom response
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking in frustrated triangular atom arrays due to cooperative light scattering