Can arranging atoms in a pattern make them glow collectively?

By punching a periodic grid of subwavelength holes in a gold film on thulium-doped lithium niobate, researchers made the ions behave as a coordinated ensemble rather than independent emitters. Time-resolved measurements show the enhanced glow comes from collective atomic physics — not the well-known single-emitter Purcell effect — opening a route to scalable quantum interfaces that don't require trapping individual atoms or coupling them one-by-one to tiny cavities.