Excitation of subradiant states in atom chains by surface plasmon waves

Abstract:Subradiant states of a finite subwavelength atomic chain in free space offer a powerful resource for photon storage. Yet their preparation and control remain challenging experimentally. A standard technique is to drive the atoms by a laser and observe the florescence light of the long-lived subradiant modes of excitation after the laser is switched off. However, these modes are highly degenerate and form an almost continuous band in the subradiant manifold. Here we propose a new method of exciting a given subradiant state by coupling atoms to a surface plasmon wave propagating along the interface with a metallic film. By controlling the chain/surface distance we may load, store and release photons in the atoms, making them a promising tool for future quantum memories.

arXiv:2610.07651 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.07651v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.07651 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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