Collective inhibition of light scattering from atoms into an optical cavity at a magic frequency

Quantum Physics arXiv:2601.08978 (quant-ph) [Submitted on 13 Jan 2026] Title:Collective inhibition of light scattering from atoms into an optical cavity at a magic frequency Authors:Á. Kurkó, B. Gábor, D. Varga, A. Simon, T. Barmashova, A. Dombi, T.W. Clark, F.I.B. Williams, D. Nagy, A. Vukics, P. Domokos View a PDF of the paper titled Collective inhibition of light scattering from atoms into an optical cavity at a magic frequency, by \'A. Kurk\'o and 10 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:We report on the observation of a new magic frequency within the hyperfine structure of the D2 line of ${}^{87}$Rb atoms at which the scattering of light into a high-finesse cavity is suppressed by an interplay between quantum interference and the strong collective coupling of atoms to the cavity. Scattering from a cloud of laser-driven cold atoms into the cavity was measured in a polarization sensitive way. We have found that both the Rayleigh and Raman scattering processes into the near-resonant cavity modes are extinguished at 185 MHz below the F=2$\leftrightarrow$F'=3 transition frequency. This coincidence together with the shape of the observed spectral dip imply that the effect relies on a quantum interference in the polariton excitations of the strongly coupled combined atom-photon system. We have also demonstrated the existence of a magic frequency around -506 MHz, where only the Raman scattering is suppressed due to a quantum interference effect at the single-atom level. Comments: Subjects: Quantum Physics (quant-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2601.08978 [quant-ph] (or arXiv:2601.08978v1 [quant-ph] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2601.08978 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration) Submission history From: András Vukics Dr. [view email] [v1] Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:54:46 UTC (660 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled Collective inhibition of light scattering from atoms into an optical cavity at a magic frequency, by \'A. Kurk\'o and 10 other authorsView PDFHTML (experimental)TeX Source view license Current browse context: quant-ph new | recent | 2026-01 References & Citations INSPIRE HEP NASA ADSGoogle Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) Links to Code Toggle Papers with Code (What is Papers with Code?) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate (What is Replicate?) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs. Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)