Nonlinear transmission through a tapered fiber in rubidium vapor

Abstract

Sub-wavelength diameter tapered optical fibers surrounded by rubidium vapor can undergo a substantial decrease in transmission at high atomic densities due to the accumulation of rubidium atoms on the surface of the fiber. Here we demonstrate the ability to control these changes in transmission using light guided within the taper. We observe transmission through a tapered fiber that is a nonlinear function of the incident power. This effect can also allow a strong control beam to change the transmission of a weak probe beam.

10 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (4)

• Absolute absorption on the rubidium D lines: comparison between theory and experiment
• Low-Light-Level Optical Interactions with Rubidium Vapor in a Photonic Bandgap Fiber
• Ultra-sensitive surface absorption spectroscopy using sub-wavelength diameter optical fibers
• UV light-induced atom desorption for large rubidium and potassium magneto-optical traps