Multi-excitation scattering in subwavelength atomic arrays
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2025
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| _version_ | 1866911167895568384 |
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| author | Wang, Yidan Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol Walther, Valentin Yelin, Susanne F. |
| author_facet | Wang, Yidan Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol Walther, Valentin Yelin, Susanne F. |
| contents | Subwavelength atomic arrays are a leading platform for engineering light-matter interactions, enabling near-perfect single-photon mirrors and robust quantum memories based on long-lived dark spin waves. However, a comprehensive theory of their nonlinear, multi-excitation dynamics has remained a significant challenge. We present a unified quantum scattering theory that treats both photons and collective atomic spin waves as distinct propagating excitations interacting across different spatial dimensions. Our central result is a powerful analytical reduction: we demonstrate that the complete multi-channel S-matrix and the associated scattering cross sections are exactly determined by the effective scattering dynamics solely within the atomic spin wave subspace. This maps the complex physical problem of photon-atom interactions to a conceptually simpler one involving only atomic modes. We apply this formalism to the two-excitation case, deriving the complete analytical S-matrix and scattering cross sections for systems with two-level nonlinearities. Our work provides a versatile analytic tool for analyzing and engineering complex quantum nonlinear phenomena, including multi-excitation subradiance, in large-scale atomic systems. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_17148 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Multi-excitation scattering in subwavelength atomic arrays Wang, Yidan Rubies-Bigorda, Oriol Walther, Valentin Yelin, Susanne F. Quantum Physics Atomic Physics Subwavelength atomic arrays are a leading platform for engineering light-matter interactions, enabling near-perfect single-photon mirrors and robust quantum memories based on long-lived dark spin waves. However, a comprehensive theory of their nonlinear, multi-excitation dynamics has remained a significant challenge. We present a unified quantum scattering theory that treats both photons and collective atomic spin waves as distinct propagating excitations interacting across different spatial dimensions. Our central result is a powerful analytical reduction: we demonstrate that the complete multi-channel S-matrix and the associated scattering cross sections are exactly determined by the effective scattering dynamics solely within the atomic spin wave subspace. This maps the complex physical problem of photon-atom interactions to a conceptually simpler one involving only atomic modes. We apply this formalism to the two-excitation case, deriving the complete analytical S-matrix and scattering cross sections for systems with two-level nonlinearities. Our work provides a versatile analytic tool for analyzing and engineering complex quantum nonlinear phenomena, including multi-excitation subradiance, in large-scale atomic systems. |
| title | Multi-excitation scattering in subwavelength atomic arrays |
| topic | Quantum Physics Atomic Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.17148 |