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Superbunching from Coherently Driven Atoms in a Waveguide

Zeidan Zeidan1,*, Therese Karmstrand1,2, Maryam Khanahmadi1, and Göran Johansson1

  • *Contact author: zeidan.zeidan@chalmers.se

Phys. Rev. Lett. 136, 250803 – Published 26 June, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/6fcg-2zns

Abstract

We investigate the scattered field from N identical two-level atoms resonantly driven by a weak coherent field in a one-dimensional waveguide. For atoms separated by the drive wavelength, increasing the number of atoms suppresses transmission while enhancing photon bunching. Transmission becomes a superbunched (N+1)-photon scattering process that is predominantly incoherent. Remarkably, we find that transmission occurs through a process where all N atoms are excited, enabling novel heralded multiphoton state generation with applications in long-distance entanglement and quantum metrology.

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