Heralded Free-Electron Writing of the Most Subradiant State in an Atomic Array

Abstract

The most subradiant eigenstate of a finite subwavelength atomic chain in free space, protected by strongly suppressed radiative decay, offers a powerful resource for photon storage, quantum sensing, and many-body quantum optics. Yet its optical preparation is hindered by the simultaneous need to match a wave vector outside the light cone and a nonuniform envelope. Here, we show that a free electron can overcome these constraints: its velocity sets the imprinted wave vector, while the trajectory of the diffracting wave packet shapes the excitation envelope. This simultaneous momentum and envelope matching enables heralded preparation with near-unity conditional fidelity ($F>99.5\%$) even in a deeply subwavelength regime that is difficult to access with propagating free-space photons. We further show that a path-superposed free electron can excite an antisymmetric state in two closely spaced parallel chains, whose interchain destructive interference yields stronger subradiance than a single chain with the same total number of atoms. These results establish free electrons as quantum writers for collective excitations that are difficult to access with propagating optical fields.