Photon induced atom recoil in collectively interacting planar arrays

TL;DR

This paper investigates how atoms in a closely spaced array recoil due to photon interactions, revealing collective effects and enhanced recoil in subradiant states, with implications for quantum optics and atomic control.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of photon-induced recoil in collective atomic arrays, highlighting the role of eigenmodes and subradiant states in recoil dynamics.

Findings

Subradiant states exhibit significantly larger recoil than independent atoms.

Interference of eigenmodes leads to specific excitation and recoil patterns.

A method to compute steady-state recoil rates is developed.

Abstract

The recoil of atoms in arrays due to the emission or absorption of photons is studied for sub-wavelength interatomic spacing. The atoms in the array interact with each other through collective dipole-dipole interactions and with the incident laser field in the low intensity limit. Shining uniform light on the array gives rise to patterns of excitation and recoil in the array. These arise due to the interference of different eigenmodes of excitation. The relation between the recoil and the decay dynamics is studied when the array is in its excitation eigenstates. The recoil experienced by a subradiant collective decay is substantially larger than from independent atom decay. A method to calculate the rate of recoil when steady state has been achieved with a constant influx of photons is also described.