Single Atoms on an Optical Nanofiber

Abstract

We show that single-atoms can be trapped on the surface of a subwavelength-diameter silica-fiber, an optical nanofiber, without any external field, and that single photons spontaneously emitted from the atoms can be readily detected through the single guided-mode of the nanofiber. A key point of the work is our finding that atom trapping sites are created on the nanofiber surface by irradiating the atom cloud around the nanofiber with a violet laser radiation.

4 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Cold Atom Physics Using Ultra-Thin Optical Fibers: Light-Induced Dipole Forces and Surface Interactions
• Spontaneous radiative decay of translational levels of an atom near a dielectric surface

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Blue-detuned evanescent field surface traps for neutral atoms based on mode interference in ultra-thin optical fibres