2024/02/09 by Charlie-Ray Mann, Mann, Charlie-Ray, Francesco Andreoli +7 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #FOS: Physical sciences #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic and Optical Devices #Quantum Physics (quant-ph) #Quantum optics and atomic interactions
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.06439
openalex publication_date 2024/02/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
A novel way to create efficient atom-light interfaces is to engineer collective atomic states that selectively radiate into a target optical mode by suppressing emission into undesired modes through destructive interference. While it is generally assumed that this approach requires dense atomic arrays with sub-wavelength lattice constants, here we show that selective radiance can also be achieved in arrays with super-wavelength spacing. By stacking multiple two-dimensional arrays we find super-wavelength mirror configurations where one can eliminate emission into unwanted diffraction orders while enhancing emission into the desired specular mode, leading to near-perfect reflection of weak resonant light. These super-wavelength arrays can also be functionalized into efficient quantum memories, with error probabilities on the order of ~1 for a trilayer with only around ~100 atoms per layer. Relaxing the previous constraint of sub-wavelength spacing could potentially ease the technical requirements for realizing efficient atom-light interfaces, such as enabling the use of tweezer arrays.