SPICE Workshop on Quantum Spinoptics, June 13th - 15th 2023
Darrick Chang
Traditionally, it has been thought that the spontaneous emission of excited atoms into unwanted directions is effectively independent in practical settings. Recently, however, it has been realized that the true correlated nature of dissipation can become very prominent, particularly in systems consisting of arrays of atoms with sub-wavelength lattice constant. In this talk, we provide an overview of some of the qualitatively different quantum optical phenomena and functionalities that can arise in such systems. These include the possibility to carry out important quantum information applications with errors that are exponentially smaller than predicted by conventional theories, in particular by "hiding" the quantum information in atomic degrees of freedom that are protected from undesired dissipation. We also discuss what we think are some of the important and challenging questions going forward, especially at the quantum many-body level, which likely hold the key to unlocking the full richness and potential of quantum atom-light interactions.