Title: Coherent photon interactions with Rydberg polaritons

Abstract: Coupling light to ensembles of Rydberg atoms has emerged as a particularly powerful approach to quantum nonlinear optics at the level of single photons. Here, photons are converted into strongly interacting Rydberg polaritons, which are coherent superpositions of light and matter. However, with the conventional approach to Rydberg quantum optics, the emerging photon interactions are intrinsically dissipative, a feature that ultimately hinders many practical applications. In this talk, I will discuss a new approach to Rydberg quantum optics based on an entirely different underlying mechanism that allows for coherent photon interactions with drastically suppressed losses. The implications of this for certain practical applications will then be discussed, and compared to previous methods.