Chiral Quantum-Optical Elements for Waveguide-QED with Sub-wavelength Rydberg-Atom Arrays

Abstract: We describe an approach to achieve near-perfect unidirectional light-matter coupling to an effective quantum emitter that is formed by a subwavelength array of atoms in the Rydberg-blockade regime. The nonlinear reflection and transmission of such two-dimensional superatoms are exploited in different interferometric setups for the deterministic generation of tunable single photons and entangling two-photon operations with high fidelities, $\mathcal{F}\gtrsim0.999$. The described setup can function as a versatile nonlinear optical element in a free-space photonic quantum network with simple linear elements and without the need of additional mode confinement, optical resonators, or optical isolators.