Quantum nonlinear metasurfaces from dual arrays of ultracold atoms

Abstract: Atoms in a sub-wavelength lattices have remarkable optical properties that have become of high scientific and technological significance. Here, we show how the coupling of light to more than a single atomic array can expand these perspectives into the domain of quantum nonlinear optics. While a single array transmits and reflects light in a largely linear fashion, the combination of two arrays is found to induce strong photon-photon interactions that can convert an incoming classical beam into highly antibunched light. Such quantum metasurfaces open up new possibilities for coherently generating and manipulating nonclassical light, from optical quantum information processing to exploring quantum many-body phenomena in two-dimensional systems of strongly interacting photons.