Optical response of gas-phase atoms at less than $\lambda /80$ from a dielectric surface

Abstract

We present experimental observations of atom-light interactions within tens of nanometers (down to 11~nm) of a sapphire surface. Using photon counting we detect the fluorescence from of order one thousand Rb or Cs atoms, confined in a vapor with thickness much less than the optical excitation wavelength. The asymmetry in the spectral lineshape provides a direct read-out of the atom-surface potential. A numerical fit indicates a power-law $-C_{\alpha }/r^{\alpha }$ with $\alpha =3.02\pm 0.06$ confirming that the van der Waals interaction dominates over other effects. The extreme sensitivity of our photon-counting technique may allow the search for atom-surface bound states.

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• Comment on "Optical Response of Gas-Phase Atoms at Less than lambda/80 from a Dielectric Surface" published by K. A. Whittaker et al.