Rayleigh-Wood Threshold Controls Nonlinear Photon Correlations in Atomic Arrays

Abstract:Two-dimensional atomic arrays provide versatile free-space quantum optical interfaces by coupling photons to collective lattice modes. Here we show that the Rayleigh--Wood anomaly provides a sharp control mechanism for both linear and nonlinear photon scattering from a single atomic layer. As the lattice spacing crosses the diffraction threshold, newly opened radiative channels rapidly broaden the dominant collective modes, converting specular reflection into diffuse off-axis scattering. In transmission, momentum-space Fano interference between the incident and collectively scattered fields produces single-photon intensity zeros that strongly reshape the momentum-space correlation pattern. An integrated nonlinear contrast reveals a pronounced channel asymmetry: upon opening the Rayleigh channels, the connected two-photon contribution drops by several orders of magnitude relative to the factorized background in transmission, while remaining close to unity in reflection. These results establish radiative diffraction thresholds as a control principle for quantum nonlinear optics in single-layer atomic arrays.

Quantum Physics (quant-ph); Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph); Optics (physics.optics)

arXiv:2609.38770 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2609.38770v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.38770 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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