Many-Body Super- and Subradiance in Ordered Atomic Arrays

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the realization of ordered 2D atomic arrays exhibiting strong super- and subradiance, enabling the study of complex many-body quantum light-matter interactions with site-resolved imaging.

Contribution

It introduces a new platform of geometrically ordered atom arrays with subwavelength spacing, revealing collective emission beyond traditional models and observing spatial correlations and many-body effects.

Findings

Observation of strong superradiant and subradiant emission in 2D atom arrays

Direct imaging of spatial correlations and many-body dynamics

Identification of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic nature of super- and subradiance

Abstract

When quantum emitters couple indistinguishably to light, they can synchronize into a collective light matter system with radiative properties profoundly different from those of independent particles. To date, the resulting collective effects have largely been confined to point like or homogeneous ensembles. Here, we open access to a qualitatively new collective regime by realizing geometrically ordered, spatially extended atom arrays with subwavelength spacing. This establishes a fundamentally new platform in which collective emission is no longer confined to a single Dicke mode but instead emerges from an ordered network of photon mediated interactions. We find that 2D atom arrays undergo strong super and subradiant emission. Despite subwavelength spacing, we achieve site resolved imaging and directly observe the buildup of spatial correlations, demonstrating the transformation of cooperative decay into a strongly correlated many-body process. We observe extensive scaling of superradiance, uncover superradiant revivals, and reveal the ferromagnetic nature of superradiance and the antiferromagnetic nature of subradiance. Our results realize a novel programmable platform for exploring and utilizing dissipative many-body quantum physics, opening new possibilities for photon capture, storage, and atom photon entanglement.